IDNO

P.71738.GIJ

Description

A photograph of the Ngusu Ada meeting place. The meeting place is in a cleared area, and there a large tree in the right of the photograph. There is a path which leads to rectangular buildings with thatched roofs in the background.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; ?Northern Bende division; Ngusu Ada

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Ada

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.71728.GIJ to P.71831.GIJ were kept in box 14, now numbered C300/.
P.71728.GIJ to P.71748.GIJ were found wrapped in paper, now numbered C300/1/.

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 various Igbo groups: Ngusu Ada, Isu Ikwu Ato, Alayi, Item
2. Ngusu Ada Igbo
3. Obu Ngusu Ada (meeting house) (11th image).

Context: G.I. Jones was a District Officer in eastern Nigeria in 1930s and he photographed and documented the peoples and culture at this time. He has written about his interest in photography and the experiences he encountered while in Nigeria.
(Jones, 1955). Jones and Forde defined the Afikpo as an Igbo subgroup called Ada or Edda (Forde and Jones, 1950, pp.51-56)

Context: Jones defines the importance, construction and role of the meeting house. He writes, “Before the colonial period few communities in the Eastern Region had any public buildings. They had their meeting-places, which in the forest zone were clearings under a few large forest trees, and in some of the savannah areas had trees specially planted for this purpose. In some groups the head of a compound, in addition to his own house, had a shed or low-walled building called Obu amongst the Ibo, where he could entertain his friends and where the men and women of the compound could sit and engage in domestic tasks out of the sun and the rain. When it was necessary for the elders of the village or for members of a club or other association to meet together they did so at the house or the Obu of one of their senior members. On the Cross River, however, each village had its meeting-house which was also the clubhouse or lodge of its secret society. Where the village was a large one, as amongst the Cross River Ibo, each ward had its own Obu. The plan of the building was the same throughout the area; it was a rectangular hall with a high gabled roof whose ridge pole was supported on three posts set in pedestals of polished clay. The front one, which faced the entrance, was decorated and in many cases carved, the last was hidden in the high walls at the back of the hall which enclosed one or two small rooms housing the secret paraphernalia of the society. The rest of the hall was surrounded by a low wall except for the entrance, which was left open; inside these walls and backing on to them were couches and platforms of polished clay; in the more elaborate examples these were carved with simple patterns and the high wall at the back was decorated with small stones. However, Ada Ibo meeting-houses were less elaborately constructed; most of them had a roof but no walls. Women were barred from them as they were used for men’s initiation rituals and the carvings used in their masquerades were kept in the roof”. (Jones, 1984, p.102)

Context: The masks, sculpture, and culture of this area are described in detail by Ottenberg. He writes that, “ the Afikpo belong to an Igbo subgroup called Ada or Edda (Forde and Jones 1950, pp.51-56), which includes the Okpoha, Edda, Amaseri, and Unwana village-groups, all of which border on the Afikpo, Nkporo and Akaeze, both short distances away. The Ada have many common features in their history and culture. They have past associations with the famous slave-trading Igbo of Aro Chuku, some forty miles to the south, and their population includes other immigrant groups from various Igbo areas, as well as residue of ancient non-Igbo peoples having Cross-River cultures (the earliest in the Ada area). The Ada are known for the prevalence of double unilineal descent, for well developed age grade organizations, for their military and head-taking activities in the past, and for their characteristic forms of art and rituals. These features differentiate them from other Igbo and from the Cross River groups” (Ottenberg, 1975, p.3)

Bibliographical Reference:
Forde and Jones. 1950. “The Ibo and Ibibio Speaking Peoples of South-Eastern Nigeria”. International African Institute, Ethnographic Survey of Africa, Western Africa, Part III) (London)
Jones, G.I. 1955 “A Memoir of Early Field Photography”, African Arts, XVIII, no. 4, pp. 64-67.
Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)
Ottenberg, S. 1975. Masked Rituals of Afikpo. (University of Washington Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 27/11/2007]