The Ogoni are a small tribe who live in the hinterland of the Niger Delta in south-eastern Nigeria. Their neighbours are the Eket and the Ibibio. The Ogoni are known for their masks and rod puppets; both objects are often provided with a movable lower jaw. The present Ogoni mask is carved of light-coloured wood and wears two ‘horns’, slightly curving outwards and with linear relief, as a hairstyle. This part is black-dyed with soot, as are the eyebrows, the nose and the square fashioned ears. Centrally in the middle of the forehead is a typical tribal scarification mark, carved in relief. It consists of a transverse rectangle, which itself is divided into twelve small rectangles. The eyes are simply slits. The actual face part was originally white (by means of kaolin clay), but currently displays heavy colour scuffing through the obviously long use of the mask. The full lips and the movable lower jaw are coloured reddish-brown. In Ogoni masks, the side attachments between mask head and lower jaw generally consists of plant fibre strips. In the case of the present specimen, they have apparently been lost and secondarily replaced by black fabric bands. A stylistically perfect Ogoni mask, with heavy colour scuffing on the face, chipped points of the ‘hairstyle horns’ and edges as a result of protracted use, as well as with a good patina on the inside, on the back, with convincing shiny areas, where forehead, nose, cheeks and chin of the dancers rubbed against it for a long time.
Height: 33 cm (with ‘horns’), width: 18 cm. First half of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance: Austrian private collection.

Lit.: ‘The Tribal Arts of Africa’ by Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, p. 92, ill. 7; ‘African Art in American Collections’ by Robbins & Nooter, ill. 715.