IDNO

T.169958.GIJ

Description

The interior of an Obu meeting house showing a central pillar with painted, carved figures. The figures are on a raised pedestal and the central pair of figures consist of a man on the bottom and a woman standing on his shoulders high up to the roof. The man is adorned with raffia fronds around his neck, and he is standing on a coiled object; a figure of a woman stands on his shoulders. Her knees are smeared with blood stains (from sacrifices). On the left side of the pedestal is a figure of a man wearing a white hat; he is standing on a human head; on the right side is a woman with decorative designs and a cloth around her waist. The figures are painted in water-colour pigments, white for the most of the body with decorations in red, black and yellow. There are other figures in the background. The walls behind are coloured elephant grey with vertical bands of white dividing it into panels which were decorated with designs of spheres, curves, and ovoids in yellow and red. The roof is gabled. Over-life-size figure in centre is wearing magical netted cap and ivory armlets. He is surmounted by his wife, and flanking him are figures of a warrior with a gun standing on the head of his enemy, and of the warrior's wife. Standing in front of far wall are figures of a warrior in a war cap and carrying the Cross River type of cutlass and a severed head, and of his wife with a pot on her head. [Description from record P.73867.GIJ, PB 28/07/2023]

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Ohaffia

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939; October 1984

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Format

Colour Transparency

Primary Documentation

Other Information

T.169937.GIJ - T.170148.GIJ were located together in a Agfa transparency box, now numbered C756/.