IDNO

P.71904.GIJ

Description

A wooden headpiece which consists of a head carved on a square with a pedestal and on top of the square is a rounded top. The head has inset eyes, pointed nose and pursed lips. The square is incised and the round finial on the top is incised. The bottom part of the base is damaged. In the background are pointed stakes and a mud wall.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Cross River

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Abiriba

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.71832.GIJ to P.71970.GIJ were kept in box 7, now numbered C298/.

Context: Jones describes the sculpture from Abiriba. He writes, “ Abiriba was, like Awka, a town of traders and craftsmen, with travelling doctors, diviners, blacksmiths and carvers of masks and figures in either a local Abariba style or in what they insisted was Ibibio. Others made ornamental bowls and dishes, drums and other objects. More recently they have introduced a system of resist-dyeing of imported baft cloth (called Ukara). In the 1930s their principle masquerade called Ngbangba Ikoro, had a band of twenty or more small boys and young men wearing masks that looked like face masks but were worn on the top of their heads and playing on clappers and metal gongs of various sizes. The characters in this masquerade consisted of two clowns with masks worn over their faces and a principle dancer called Otiri with a mask worn on top of his head and stuck full of long feathers, his face shrouded in a raffia bag, and wearing a shirt of raffia sacking and grass skirt. His right arm and left leg were painted in white chalk (Nzu) and the other arm and leg in yellow (Odo). The ‘copyright’ for this play and its masks was vested in a family of carvers. If one of them carved a mask for sale he had to share in the proceeds with his brother carvers. There were a number of other masquerades, each belonging to a particular section of the community.” (Jones, 1988, pp.61-62)

Context: Jones writes that within the Abam/Ohaffia area 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 other masquerades of their own with masks carved in local variations of the Lower Niger style. Some of these, although carved for use as a face mask, were actually worn on the actor’s head, for example in the Ngbangba Ikoro masquerade of Abiriba.” (Jones, 1984, p. 208)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I. 1988. Ibo Art (Shire)
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 18/12/2007]