IDNO

P.171794.GIJ

Description

A close up of a clay sculpture of the spirit Ala in an Mbari house. The head has a painted elaborate headdress with two hair bunches, one on top of the other, highlighted in different colour parallel lines. Her torso is painted in uli patterns. She is holding an ivory horn in her right hand and has her left hand resting on the head of a sculpture of a child. The sculpture of Ala is seated on a plinth. In the background are the painted wall of the central column and buttresses, and a sculpture of an attendant. [Description from record P.170759.GIJ, PB 14/11/2024]

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Southeast Nigeria; Owerri North; Imo; Ulakwo town

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]; Oratta Ibo

Named Person

Photographer

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

Collector / Expedition

Date

1936

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.171730.GIJ - P.171808.GIJ were located together in an 'University of Camridge' envelope, now numbered C841/.

Bibliographical Reference: G.I. Jones describes Mbari sculptures on pp. 82-92 and Mbari house architecture on p. 104 in Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria, (Cambridge: CUP).

Bibliographical Reference: H.M. Cole describes Mbari houses and sculptures in Cole H.M., 1982. Mbari: Art and Life among the Owerri Igbo, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).