IDNO

P.71413.GIJ

Description

A Mau helmet mask. The face of the mask is painted white with darker paint / pigments to accentuate the eyebrows, eyes, mouth, hair and crested structure. The eyes are small slits and the mouth is open and outlined in black. On the temple are two circular etched and raised markings (resembling keloids?) and an etched marking in the centre of the forehead. The arched crest is striated with diagonal incisisions and there are round white markings adorning the side of the crest and in the centre. The side of the mask consists of swirled, incised designs representing uli and two etched combs are attached to the “hair”.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Onitsha province; Nri Awka

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nri Akwa

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.71400.GIJ to P.71498.GIJ were kept in box 5, now numbered C302/.
P.71408.GIJ to P.71414.GIJ were found wrapped in paper, now numbered C302/2/.

Publication: Mask collected by Talbot in 1920 and is now in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.

Context: In relationship to this photograph, the masquerade Obugulu Mau, was very popular in the 1930s and consisted of a small group of female helmet-masked characters in brightly coloured harlequin-like tights (Jones, 1984. p.60). Mau is translated as “secret society”.

Context: There was a broad division in many Lower Niger masquerades between ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ characters. The former were thought of as beautiful, serene, and usually female beings, the latter as dangerous, aggressive and masculine. The beautiful were usually white-faced with black hair and gaily decorated headdresses rounded, angular. The white-faced helmut type was confined to part of the Northern Ibo area and and to some of the Northern Edo. In the majority of examples the crested area, when scene in profile formed a curve which reached from the back of the head to the top of the forehead, while the mask section was flat and set at an angle to it, either coming down vertically over the actor’s face or being extended forward at an angle (Jones, 1984, p.139)

Context: The number and variety of masks and masquerades [in the Nri/Awka Igbo area of Ontisha province] was considerable: they were referred to generically as Mau (Ghost) and one of the more recent was Obugulu Mau, in which the characters were a grandmother, a mother, and a number of daughter masks attired in bright harlequin-like tights and wearing helmet masks or masks with a head-dress made up of a superstructure of wire and cane covered in brightly coloured wools or streamers to which cloth or wooden figures were attached.” (Jones,1984, p.143)

Context: Cole and Aniakor provide further in-depth description about the maiden spirit masks or the “The Fame of Maidens,” Ude Agbogho. Adolescent female masks, Agbogho Mmanwu (or mmuo) . During the performance the males embody the ideals of youthful feminine beauty which includes light complexions, pointed breasts, slim waist, fine facial features, and her hair will be in elaborately and delicately dressed in the preferred crested
style...The maiden spirit masquerade reempahsises and exaggerates the ‘feminine ideal’. The tight fitting brilliantly coloured and patterned appliqué costume derive from uli and other painted body designs. Flamboyant, delicate open work
hairstyles on maiden masks enlarge expressively on real hairdos,
facial features are finer and smaller in life, and the face is, of
course, whiter, an allusion to the spiritual beauty and moral purity. (Aniakor and Cole, 1986, pp.1201-121.

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press); Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California).

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 8/11/2007]