- Collection type
- Object
- Description
- Face mask from the Orokosia play. [ZM 08/04/2013]
- Long description
- Face mask from the Orokosia play. Wooden mask carved out of one piece of soft wood. Symmetrical human facial features with carved open slits for eyes. The upper lip of the mouth is protruding producing the effect of an open mouth with a set of teeth carved in relief. The features are picked out in black, and there is a black mark at the side of the face. A yellow scalloped border runs from ear to ear. The hair or a headdress is represented by three wooden cylinders joined at right angles. The face is painted in white pigment, some of this has come off. The hair, eyebrows, lips, ears and nose are painted black/ brown. There are three raised squares with geometric patterns carved each side of the face. There is a plant fibre loop at the back and a row of holes around all round the edge of the mask. The inner face is roughly carved. [ZM 08/04/2013]
- Cultural groups
- Igbo
- Date / Period
- Date made: Before 1937
- Date collected
- 1937
- Acquisition information
- Donated: 1938
- Materials and processes
- Material Wood Plant, Material Pigment, Material Plant Fibre, Process Carved, Process Painted, Process Perforated
- Dimensions
- Width: max 115 mm, Depth: max 76 mm, Length: max 235 mm
- Object numbers
- Accession number: 1938.15.10
- Research and responses
For the donor's description of the Okorosia play in the 1930s when this mask entered the Museum collections see Jones, G.I., 'Okorosia' (by 'Daji'), Nigerian Field Volume 3 No. 4, pp 175-177 (October 1934) [ZM 02/05/2013]
For a description of the Okorosia masquerade (also known as Okoroshi, Okorosh or Okorosi) during the 1980s see pp 186-204 in Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, by Herbert M. Cole and Chike C. Aniakor (Los Angeles: University of California Museum of Cultural History, 1984). [ZM 10/07/2013]
Search terms: Mask, Dance, Dance Accessory