IDNO

P.73998.GIJ

Description

A documentation photograph of an Okorosie or Okoroshi mask. The mask is a dark (unpainted?) wooden face mask that is oval in shape and shows a corn row hairstyle, high forehead, etched markings above the eyes and in the centre of the forehead, slit eyes, nose and wide open mouth with teeth, and two diagonal markings on each cheek.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria

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/.

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. Amiakor, 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]