IDNO

P.71603.GIJ

Description

Onye Ocha or Oybio (white man) masquerade character. The mask consists of a white face with black arched brows, slits for eyes, long nose and mouth with a black moustache. On the top is a carved white sun helmet with a black brim. The costume consists of a white drill jacket and trousers; the character is posed with one hand on his hip and in the other, he is holding a walking stick. On his feet are white shoes/slippers and his hands are covered in white mittens/gloves. In the background are spectators and trees.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Nri Awka

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/.

Publication: Same image published on John McCall’s G.I. Jones website with the following information: [Source: www.siu.edu/~anthro/mccall/jones/, AF ]
1. Index to Nsukka and Nri/Awka Igbo
2. Nri-Awka Igbo
3. Onyeocha (white man) (27th image).

Publication: Same image published in Jones, 1984, p. 59, Figure 9 and Jones, 1989, p.46, Figure 40, with the caption, “Mau masquerade, Nri-Awka Ibo, Character called Oyibo (white man). Similar character is found in Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p.262, Figure 262.

Context: Jones provides a detailed description of the various characters of this masquerade he observed and photographed in the field, “A performance in the Northern Ibo village of Amobia was opened by a hooded character called “Government”. He had no face and was crowned with a Homburg hat; an elephant tusk horn, symbol of authority, was laid on the ground in front of him and he read in ghostly gibberish from an important-looking document. He and his acolyte withdrew and were succeeded by a parade of ghostly policemen and court messengers wearing imitations of police and messenger uniforms and with cloth masks over their faces and head. They performed a spirited guard drill before being posted by their commander to their stations to control the crowd. Their followed a supercilious white-faced sun-helmeted figure in white drill jacket and trousers called Oyibo (White Man), who inspected the audience and then took his seat amongst the places reserved for the distinguished visitors who had come to watch the play. After him came a succession of characters, some white-faced, representing female spirits, some black or multi-coloured fierce and masculine creatures with masks that combined animal and human features; others again, mainly harmless or comic or benign, representing antelopes, or other animal spirits or characters drawn from village life. Each had his or her special role to play and having acted it withdrew to the secret enclosure or sat on seats at the ringside waiting to repeat his performance. “ Jones also writes that this masquerade was “ a large concerted display which included characters contributed by all the local societies.” (Jones, 1984, pp.59-60.)

In discussing the variety of masks an characters in masquerades from the Nri-Awka area, Jones writes that, “Other helmet masks combined the representation of a sun helmet with a masculine face for a character called Ogaranya (big man) or, if given a cavalry moustache and costumed in a white drill suit, became Oyibo, the white man. This was a new character, probably soon after the 1914-1918 war, which became immediately popular and spread very quickly to masquerades in other Ibo areas (Jones, 1989, p.46).

Context: “The character of the “White Man,” surely a twentieth-century innovation, also attests to Okperegede’s conceptual flexibility and capacity to absorb new elements and influences. Generically known as Onye Ocha, the character is commonly depicted as a colonial district officer who reads monotonously from a book of rules and jots down observations in a notebook. He also appears with his wife (the only other female character), affecting Western mannerisms: wrapping his arms around her, kissing her, and being, to Igbo sensibilities, overly familiar in public. Always received as a figure of fun, the “White Man’ is all the more amusing because, unlike Ogbojeda, his performance is not founded on exaggeration or intentional violation of social norms, but rather on recapitulation of the model’s characteristics. The “White Man’ appears to consider himself completely proper and dignified and is totally oblivious to his humorous reception.” (Cole and Aniakor, 1984, p. 149)

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); Jones, G.I. 1989. Ibo Art (Shire).

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 20/11/2007]