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TRIBAL AFRICAN ART
IBIBIO
Nigeria
Over
two million Ibibio live in Nigeria, between the Delta and the Cross River. There are
western Anang Ibibio and southern Eket Ibibio. The main economic staple in the
region is the palm tree, the oil of which is extracted and sold to external markets.
The Ibibio traditionally cultivate yams, plantains and
maize. Ekpo is the Ibibio word for “ancestor,” as well as the name of the
principal masking society, its masks, and the dances that commemorate the deceased. The
members of the ekpo society play a political,
legislative, judiciary, and religious role in the village. It is a graded association in
charge of the ancestor cult and includes two types of masks: the first, the idiok,
is ugly and evokes wandering spirits, as compared to the mfon,
which is handsome and represents spirits who have reached paradise. White- and
yellow-faced masks, mfon come out during daytime burial festivities honoring the
recent dead, and also at annual agricultural festivals. Their dances are slow and
graceful, with costumes made of many bright-colored cloths. Considered good and beautiful,
mfon masks embody the souls of people whose lives on earth were productive and
morally unblemished. These are not named ancestors, but rather the collective community of
souls whose positive influence is welcome among the living. During the ceremony, young
people personify the spirits, who have momentarily returned to the world of living. The idiok
black masks, are often of naturalistic appearance and with movable jaws. They represent
corrupt, amoral, ugly, and evil souls sentenced at death to perpetual ghosthood. They
appear only at night, well after the pretty masks have retired. Costumed in unruly hanks
of black-dyed raffia, they dance erratically, at times with deliberately wild movements to
inspire terror in those they encounter. Many dark Ibibio masks have distorted facial
features that are interpreted as advanced states of disfiguring tropical diseases.
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