Igbo and Afikpo
Mask (Mba)
Igbo/Afikpo, 1933-1966
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Wood; black, white, red, and orange paint; raffia; string; metal eye hooks, 15 3/8 × 4 7/16 × 2 3/4 in. (39 × 11.3 × 7 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Barry and Toby T. Hecht, Bethesda, Maryland
Object Number
1991.351
White face with 2 black tear marks on each cheek, black forehead with red eyebrows. Face surmounted by rectangular board painted black and decorated with incised oval in red flanked by 2 sets of white semi-circles each containing 2 incised diamonds in red. Painted red X's on bottom of board and on sides of oval, painted red dots on top of board. Raffia attached to sides of face. Orange paint inside mouth.
William and Robert Arnett, Atlanta, Georgia
Wittmer, Marcilene A., and William Arnett. "Three Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross and Benue from the Collection of William and Robert Arnett." Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1978, pp. 33, ill. 76.
Ottenberg, Simon, Masked Rituals of Afikpo, University of Washington Press, 1975.
