IDNO

P.73893.GIJ

Description

Base of pillar from ruined Obu house with skulls of human, horse. leopard? and harnessed antelope. The stylised carved figure is on the pillar with knees slightly bent and feet perched on a platform. In the background is a mud and thatched house and a child in the left of the photograph.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]

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.73891.GIJ to P.74008.GIJ were kept in box 12, now numbered C339/.

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 Ohafia/Abam Igbo
2. Shrines (arunsi)
3. Arunsi near obu in Abam (close-up) (5th image).

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)

Bibliographical Reference:
Forde and Jones. 1950. “The Ibo and Ibibio Speaking Peoples of South-Eastern Nigeria”. International African Institute,
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 19/12/2007]