Mask "agbogho mmwo" ("maiden spirit")

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Description

wood, black paint, white and red pigment, helmet-shaped, elaborate coiffure with lobes and middle crest in openwork design (presumably depicting yams), proportionally small face with fine features and scarifications, remains of a bonnet backside (wooden splinters covered with fabric), sightly dam., paint rubbed off, socle;
the type of mask symbolizes the ideals of juvenile female beauty. It belongs
to the men’s society “mmwo” and is worn by young men on harvest festivities (yams rites) and on annual ceremonies in honour of the earth spirit “ane”, as well as on pompous funerals of members of the society. The dancers were clothed in coloured tight costumes with false breasts.

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Comparing literature

Leuzinger, Elsy, Afrika, Kunst der Negervölker, Baden-Baden 1959, p. 126, ill. 32 Cole, Herbert M. & Chike C. Aniakor, Chike, Igbo Arts, Los Angeles 1984, p. 120 ff.

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