IDNO

P.171107.GIJ

Description

Ogbugulu Mau (Ghost) masquerade.
Iro Ekpetu (‘Merciless’), the masquerader, wears a fierce-looking black carved mask (darkened, with white? painted eyes, pointed nose, and protruding teeth painted white?), and a raffia hairpiece, a cloth top and trousers, and a raffia skirt. The masquerader is holding up both arms. Behind the masquerader are mud huts, a walled area trees and vegetation. [Description from record P.767002.GIJ, PB 14/06/2024]

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; South Eastern Nigeria; Onitsha Province; near Awka; Amuda village

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Isuochi

Named Person

Photographer

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

Collector / Expedition

Date

1932 - 1938

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White Mounted

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.171077.GIJ - P.171341.GIJ were located together in a brown box, now numbered C767/.

P.767029.GIJ - P.767032.GIJ are mounted together on paper.

Bibliographical Reference: G.I. Jones explains secret societies and their masquerades in Jones G.I., 1984. The art of Eastern Nigeria. (Cambridge: CUP), pp. 56-75. [PB 13/06/24]

Image used in Jones G.I. The art of Eastern Nigeria. 1984. Cambridge: CUP. Fig 10 p60. Caption: "Iro Ekpetu : Mau masquerade. Isuochi Ibo"

Related Archive: Jones' notes in the folder 'Mau Masquerade. Amuda Village. Isu Ochi Tribe. Northern Ibo', "This masquerade was played in the dry season usually in December. The performers consisted of a chorus of young men who clapped and sang, two bands and eight masked characters.
The first band contained three small Ibibio type membrane drums, played with a crooked stick and the fingers, one small double iron gong, a pair of basket rattles and a piper with a two toned whistle.
The second band had one large pot with a hole in the side on which the player beat with the palm of his hand, one small double gong and one two toned whistle.
The actors in the masks had costumes which completely covered their hands and feet (with old cloth or in the case of the feet of some of them, old stockings). Whenever through furious dancing a toe or a finger might become exposed the attendant (each character was, as usual, guided and guarded by an uncostumed servant) broke off a spray of a shrub and struck the ground in front of the character and then made off for the dressing enclosure hotly pursued by the mask.
There was no concerted acting. The masks appeared sometimes together, sometimes separately, spoke to each other and to the crowd in "ghostly" voice (through voice disguisers) mimed, paraded through the village, and stood about in the arena. The white faced "beautiful" ones danced stamping with rattles on their ankles in front of the band, the "fierce" or comic ones stood around, threatened the crowd or danced, as the spirit moved them.
The performance went on for most of the afternoon. I left before it hand ended."

About the character Iro Ekpetu (Merciless), G.I. Jones writes in the notes: "There were two of these fierce masks, black with fang-like teeth, wearing a loose costume of sacking or soiled cotton cloth with an apron-like skirt of raffia, and carrying a wand or a stick with which to theaten the crowd."