ClassificationsAfrican Art

Face Mask, Okorisia Nma

Place CreatedNigeria, Africa

CultureIgbo, Western Isuama subgroup

Date20th Century

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions10 x 6 1/2 in. (25.4 x 16.5 cm)

Object number1994.004.547

Label TextIgbo masks are made in many styles, and their distribution does not necessarily coincide with a matching set of beliefs concerning mask spirits. For example, the Okorosia masquerades of south-central Igboland share overall style features with the northern Igbo masks of the Nri-Awka area, such as the white-faced "Maiden-Spirit Mask" Agbogho mmuo but the belief in Okorosia water spirits is borrowed from the Niger Delta to the south where water spirits abound.

Okorosia masks are considered to be the messengers of Owu, a water deity found in the Niger Delta region. They descend from their homes in the clouds and appear on earth for a month every year at the peak of the rainy season. This fine old mask is a representation of one of the friendly and beautiful feminine spirits, Okorosia Nma, characterized by small, fine facial features. They dance in white attire while gesturing with fans or dance-paddles and about their waists are hung large brass bells. Their visual and behavioral opposites, the Okorosia Ojo, are ugly and fierce spirits with distorted features that contrast utterly with the small, finely-featured and symmetrical whiteface type seen here.

Exhibition HistoryThree Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue from the Collection of William and Robert Arnett, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, 1978
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 2, February 1997 - July 1998
Masquerade: Scripturalizing Modernities Through Black Flesh, A Pitts Theology Library Digital Exhibition, Emory University, 2021 (virtual exhibition)
Published ReferencesMarcilene K. Wittmer and William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1978), 34, number 79.

ProvenanceEx coll. William S. Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1978.

Status

Not on view

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