Okumkpa Mask

Igbo people, Afikpo District, Eastern Nigeria

17 inches, wood stained red, white, black, and ochre; with raffia

Among the eastern Igbo in the region of Afikpo, masks are worn in dances that satirize the vices of elderly members of the community. The typical mask is fairly small and narrow, vertically oriented, and worn projecting forward from the face in front of a raffia collar attached to the mask-back and lashed to the wearer’s head. Collected in the 1950's, this kind of mask has become hard to find.