IDNO

P.72315.GIJ

Description

A frontal view of an Ekpe (Ibo) head consisting of two carved heads on a rectangular bracket or bar. The pair of round heads are stylised and consist of eyes, nose, mouth and ringed or coiled neck. The head on the left has a curved crest-like head-dress and the head on the right has a round head-dress. The figures are painted and the rectangular base is painted in triangualr patterns.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Ngwa

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.71972.GIJ to P.72000.GIJ and P.72249.GIJ to P.72371.GIJ were kept in box 8, now numbered C297/.

Context: Jones writes about the Ohuhu/Ngwa and their sculpture. He also explains the meaning of Ekpe.
“This territory was peopled by the Ibo moving across the Imo river and absorbing the small Northern Ibibio settlements which they encountered in the north and centre, and eventually meeting and establishing a fighting frontier with the Anang Ibibio expanding northward and westward. The Ndokki tribe in the extreme south had Ijo connections and the founders of the Ijo trading state of Bonny are said to have come from one of their villages. Most of the Ohuhu or northern sector had the Ekpe (Egbo) type of secret society under the name Ekpe, Akang, Okonko together with their masquerades and their Egbo runner and other types of net costumes, and they borrowed and copied freely from the masks and masquerades of their Anang neighbours including the Cross River Ikem and its heads. I saw very few skin-covered heads in the 1930s, though I was told that they were more numerous in the past but had gone out of fashion. In some of the Ekpe (Egbo) masquerades the only characters which I saw were in the faceless tight-fitting or flowing net costumes in which the face of the actor was concealed beneath the net. In others these types of costume were combined with Traditional Anang (Ibibio) face masks. The masks were referred to as Isi Ekpo (Ekpo head) but the name of the masquerade was Ekpe. In other masquerades which were called Ekpo, the masks were Anang or local copies of Anang Ekpo masks, but the costumes were of imported cotton cloths and not the traditional raffia fringes and skirts of the Anang Ekpo. Thought they had masquerades called Ekpo they did not have any Ekpo secret societies and the masked characters behaved in a relatively benign fashion. They also copied the Anang dramatic masquerades of the Ekong and Ofiong types...The most impressive surviving examples of sculpture from this area, however, were the heads produced for their Ekpe (Ibo) play and the figures from their trophy or fertility dance called Ugbom.”

In relation to the Ekpe(Ibo) sculpture Jones says that, “This masquerade had been fashionable ‘a long time ago’ according to Uhuhu informants. It had become defunct in this sector in the early part of the century and no one could tell Murray or myself much about it. Further south amongst the Ngwa there were said to be a few villages still playing it in 1920s. The masquerade consisted of the usual parade of a number of stately and fierce characters wearing heads which were carved in a remarkable number of different forms and styles. There were several styles:

1. Small heads, occasionally single, more usually with two or more faces or heads, sometimes surmounted with a bird or other embellishment and carved in the Lower Niger style.
2. Small to medium heads carved in a naturalistic mode which emphasised the cheek-bones and chin but omitted the eyes and only indicated eyelids. Many of these were in pairs on a bar or bracket. This type was confined to Oboro and Olokoro tribes and to some of the Northern Ngwa.
3. Single heads carved in a stylised angular mode
4. Single heads, medium to large in size in the Delta style.
5. Small to medium female heads with hair tied up in bunches or horns in a naturalistic Modern Anang Ibibio style found in Ibeku Ohuhu
6. Small to medium white faced female heads with crested or horned head-dresses and carved in the Lower Niger style (Jones, 1984, pp. 199-200.).

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 14/12/2007]