IDNO

P.71565.GIJ

Description

A masquerader wearing a hood mask. The mask is made of woven cloth and covers the actor’s head and neck. The mask has two eye holes, and it is decorated in white? stripes and a braided piece or “tassel” on the top of the head; there is a fringe around the bottom of the headpiece. The costume is appliquéd and made of several strips of material with fringe around the sleeves and the bottom of the legs. (bare hands and feet). The actor is holding a carved wooden staff. In the background is a compound and buildings of mud and thatch and a few on lookers- children, man in shorts and shirt, women in a wrapper and cap, and a goat.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]

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.71504.GIJ to P.71662.GIJ were kept in box 4, now numbered C301/.
P.71565.GIJ to P.71571.GIJ were found wrapped in paper, now numbered C301/4/.

Context: Jones discusses the importance of concealment and the various type of masks. He writes in reference to hood masks, “The actor wore all-enveloping tights which encased his head, limbs, and body and were made of netted fibre on the Cross River, of raffia cloth in some Cross River Ibo communities, and of cotton cloth decorated with patterns of appliqued strips of brightly coloured cloth in the Northern Ibo area. In the netted costume the actor’s head was commpletely covered and concealed by the net and he wore no mask or headpiece. In the ones made of cloth the part that went over the actor’s face was sometimes given eyeholes or was worked into a cloth mask; in other cases, it was replaced by a wooden face mask. “ (Jones, 1984, p.43)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 22/10/2007]