IDNO

P.71817.GIJ

Description

Ajonku masquerade; two masquerade characters in a “parade” of masks. The mask on the left is a dark face mask with humanistic features consisting of almond shaped eyes, nose, and open mouth, defined with white paint. On top of the mask are feathers and raffia twine as a headdress. The masquerader is holding a cutlass painted white with black lines and markings in one hand and some twigs in the other. The torso is covered with a cloth and there are two cloths or handkerchiefs? hanging from the mask. The other mask is rather comical and consists of two horns on the top, bulbous eyes,nose, pouting mouth, prominent ears accentuated with white paint. The hair is made of a coarse fiber material and the masquerader is holding a fly whisk. In the background are supporters and bystanders.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; Northern Bende division

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Isu Ikwato

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/.

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. Isu Ikwu Ato
3. Two masks Parade of masks, Ajonku masquerade, Ovim village (4th image).

Context: In reference to the Abam/Ohaffia area, Jones writes that, “Many of their towns and villages had Ekpe (Egbo) masquerades and skin-covered heads in the Cross-River Style, usually called Ajonku. But they also had masquerades of their own with masks carved in local variations of the Lower Niger style. Some of these, althogh carved for use as a face mask, were actually worn on the actor’s head, for example in the Ngbangba Ikoro masquerade of the Abiriba. All these tribes, but particularly the Abiriba, were great doctors and traders and travelled extensively in the Cross River area and through the Ibibio country to the coastal trading states. Anang (Ibibio) sculpture was greatly admired, but it does not seem to have had much influence on the local styles” (Jones, 1984, p.208)

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 3/12/2007]