IDNO

P.73908.GIJ

Description

Okorosie masquerade with the two masquerade characters called Akatakpuru (fierce) and Nwanyure (Proud Woman). The masquerade character on the left is Nwanyure (Proud woman) wearing a ‘beautiful’ female white face mask with a superstructure on top. The mask is painted white with facial features accentuated with black paint; on top of the mask is a carving of a face with horned or braided coiffure. The masquerader is covered in plaid cloths, trousers and rows of seeds around the ankles and lower calf. The masquerade character on the right is Akatakpuru who is wearing a fierce dark face mask that is rectangular in shape with an incised forehead, round bulbous eyes, rectangular nose and white snout jutting out, with large teeth projecting from the mouth. On top of the mask are feathers. The character is wearing a dark woven cloth and light coloured palm fronds around his waist (warning of dangerous supernatural powers) and seed anklets, holding a gong in in one hand. In the background are trees.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria; Eziama

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Isuama

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/.
P.73907.GIJ to P.73954.GIJ were found wrapped in paper, now numbered C339/2/.

Publication: This image has been reproduced as a postcard by the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, captioned as follows:
“Nigerian Art
Ibo Masquerades
No. 6: Isuama Ibo. Isu Tribe. ‘Okorosie’ Masquerade.
Masks called ‘Nwanyioma’ and ‘Akatakpuru’.” [JD 11/6/2010]

Publication: Same image in Jones, 1988, p.53, Figure 44 with the caption, “Okorosie maquerade. Eziama town, Western Isuama Ibo. ‘Beautiful’ mask called Nwanyure (Proud woman) and ‘fierce’ called Akatakpuru. He carries a gong; the light-coloured palm fronds around his wasit warn of his dangerous super-natural power.”

Same image in Jones, 19884 p.155, Figure 62 with the title Ebele Igwe (Thunder Ram).

Context: Jones discusses the masquerades found in the Isuama towns and writes. “In the Owerri sector interest in masquerades was concentrated n he Western Isuama towns and in the communities bordering the Orashi and Sombreiro rivers that sold their oil to the Kalabari traders at Abonnema. The Eastern Isusama, at least in the 1930s, were not interested in masquerades and their sculpture was mainly confined to family groups of figures for the shrines of their local deities, while most of the Oratta and Etche Ibo concentrated their creative energies on mud sculpture of bigger and better Mbari houses. The Western Isuama had developed a local style of face masks and heads representing a range of characters very similar to those of the Nri-Awka masquerades. There was a greater variation and elaboration of the ‘beautiful’ white-faced masks, many being combined with one or more heads and sometimes carved in a single piece. The usual name for the masquerade was Okorosie but it was also called Owu and, more rarely, Okonko. Owu is the Ijo name for a water spirit and the characters in these masquerades were said to be spirits of this sort. Okonko, as mentioned previously, was a Cross River type of masquerade and in the Ohuhu area from where this name was derived its characters were said to be servants of Ekpe, a forest demon. However, the characters and supporting masks in these Isuama masquerades, whether they were called Okorosie, Owu or Okonko, remained the same and were drawn from local mythology and from contemporary life. None of them, except possibly a white-faced ‘beautiful’ mask called DC (District Commissioner) and another called Miri Osimiri (Sea Bird), who was his wife, could be said to have any connection with water. (In Ibo mythology Europeans are said to come from the sea).

Although the Owu/Okorosi/Okonko type of masquerade was the principal Western Isuama masquerade they also had another, said to have been introduced more recently from further west. This was called Ekeleke and the characters, who all wore white-faced female heads or in some cases heads and torsos, danced on stilts and would appear to have been the same as the Ekeleke masquerade of the Isoko Edo, the neighbouring Western Ibo and the Ohuhu masquerade of this name.” (Jones, 1988, pp.53-56)

Context: In discussing the various styles of masks, Jones notes that, “small to medium white-faced female heads with crested or horned head-dresses and carved in a Lower Niger style similar to some of the heads in the Ogbukere or Okorosia masquerades of the Southern Ibo.” (Jones, 1984, p.200)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)
Jones, G.I. 1988. Ibo Art. (Shire)
Cole, H. & C. Aniakor, 1984. Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos (Museum of Cultural History, University of California)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 27/2/2008]