A carved wooden headdress crest of the Eastern, or Kalabari, Ijo of the Niger Delta, blending human and aquatic animal features such as the hippopotamus or fish, worn by dancers of the Kalabari Ekine society in public masquerade performances honoring the region's water spirits (owuamapu). The crest is carried facing the sky and becomes visible to spectators only when the dancer bends forward. Robin Horton's scholarship on the Ekine society describes these masquerades as both a highly regarded form of entertainment and a religious institution soliciting the water spirits' help, and an important organ of Kalabari village government in its own right. This specific object, held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is a documented example of the form.
Facts
Subject Matter
Depicted SubjectA composite human and aquatic animal form representing an owuamapu, a Niger Delta water spirit believed to hold power over wealth, fertility and the food supply. 2 Devotional FunctionWorn in the Kalabari Ekine society's public masquerade dances, performances that both entertain and, in Horton's account, function as a religious institution invoking the water spirits' favor. This atlas records the crest's form and its documented public performance context rather than any closed initiation content of the Ekine society. 2 Rights and Reproduction
Reproduction and CopyrightThis atlas describes and cites the object rather than reproducing a photograph of it, and describes only its documented physical form and public performance context, not any closed practice of the Ekine society. 2 Medium (class) Custody
Current LocationThe Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1 Current CustodianThe Metropolitan Museum of Art 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Kalabari Ekine Society: A Borderland of Religion and ArtRobin Horton
Originated In
Source Bini Oru (Water Spirit) Crest, Ijo Peoples (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Sources
1. Bini Oru (Water Spirit) Crest, Ijo Peoples (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
The Metropolitan Museum of Artcatalogue record, medium/object-type description
A carved wooden headdress crest of the Eastern, or Kalabari, Ijo of the Niger Delta, blending human and aquatic animal features such as the hippopotamus or fish, worn by dancers of the Kalabari Ekine society in public masquerade performances honoring the region's water spirits (owuamapu).
Originated In: West Africa, Object record: Country
Country: Nigeria
View the Source 2. The Kalabari Ekine Society: A Borderland of Religion and Art
Robin Horton, Africa (journal), vol. 33, no. 2, 1963
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