Dance crest "okoromkpu" ·  Nigeria, Igbo · ID: 3037831

Description

wood, remains of polychrome paint, a long neck supporting a small head with projecting crest and a pair of long straight horns, min. dam., missing parts, cracks, traces of abrasion;
“Okoromkpu” (“young man with horns”) opens the “okperegede” display. Horns are his signal trait, he is a troublemaker, a vandal who disrupts people, as a crowd chaser he clears people from the dance ground and connecting paths. “Okoromkpu” opens the way for the “ogbodo”. As they enter, he retreats to the edges of the arena. But periodically throughout the display, he bursts without warning into the centre of things charging the crowd, “keeping the atmosphere hot.”

Comparing literature

Cole, Herbert M. & Chike C. Aniakor, Chike, Igbo Arts, Los Angeles 1984, p. 147, ill. 258