Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Afikpo masquerades inspired Simon Ottenberg (American, 1923-2023) throughout his long career as an anthropologist. What he observed among the Afikpo Igbo communities in southeastern Nigeria revealed a masking complex with layers of significance. His infatuation with this complex was evident in nearly every conversation I had with him, including moments at his 100th birthday gathering in Seattle. A high point in our exchanges came when we worked together on an installation of Afikpo masks at the Seattle Art Museum (Fig. 1) where I am the Curator of African and Oceanic Art. Simon overflowed with detailed observations and was a model collaborator, tolerant of questions and new ideas. This was made evident when I mentioned that the weight of his evidence to support the recreation of masquerade did not always ignite the visionary leap that it takes to put oneself close to an Afikpo frame of mind. He understood, and we both began relying on a novel that was written at nearly the same time Simon was documenting masquerades. Powerful sentences and paragraphs became our starting point as we approached different dimensions of performance. This combination of fact and fiction, inside and outside perspectives, fueled many artists and allies to help simulate an Afikpo play and parade inside the Seattle Art Museum in 2007.1Renowned author Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) wrote Things Fall Apart in the 1950s, featuring Igbo life in southeastern Nigeria at the end of the nineteenth century, to illuminate an era when friction escalated between Igbo society of the past and a new era of colonial rule that led to official British operations beginning in eastern Igboland in 1901. By the end of the twentieth century, Things Fall Apart was recognized as an international milestone that Igbo scholar Frances Abiola Irele describes, in an introduction to an edited volume, as a book thatAchebe takes readers to the fictional Nigerian village of Umuofia, where nine masked spirits have the authority to administer high levels of justice and where a White man is the catalyst for disruption as he enters the village and asks for a king, whom he never finds. White missionaries follow, build a church in the Evil Forest, defying its sanctity, and bring in their form of government. Things Fall Apart describes an epic clash between men who rely on masked spirits to regulate society and the new colonial powers that rely on figures whom the Igbo nickname “Ashy Buttocks” (because of the color of their shorts) as the agents for a District Commissioner. With its layered symbolism and evocative prose, this novel takes readers to the era between the legendary past and changes in life in the twentieth century. At the very moment the novel was published in 1958, Simon was hard at work nearby.Not far away from Achebe's home, Simon Ottenberg arrived in Afikpo for the first time in 1951 and carried out research periodically until 1966. He came armed with the teachings of Professors Melville Herskovits and William Bascom, who led him to employ anthropological field methods of observing, interviewing, photographing, and scrutinizing his findings in discussions with key informants. Settling into a village group culture of 30,000 people in twenty-two villages, he conducted a field study of kinship and descent and traditional local-level politics. While doing so, he wrote of being tremendously impressed by the complexity of the masquerades he encountered. As a 30-year-old with a vigorous career as an anthropologist ahead of him, he diverted his studies to include an effort to be initiated and gain access to masquerade intelligence. He developed a friendship with the carver Chukwu Okoro (1910-1987), who supplied him with full sets of masks. Okoro was the first of many allies that Ottenberg sought out to assist his investigations of Afikpo masquerade. His studies immersed him in a culture that was shifting, but still maintaining longstanding practices. An English District Officer had been in place since 1902, but the administrators hadn't altered many distinctive elements of Afikpo society. Schools, missionaries, and economic changes were noticeable, but most men were still farmers with a social life marked by the taking of titles, decisions being made by groups of elders, active men's secret societies, and what Ottenberg calls a “crowded and intricate organizational world” (Ottenberg 1989: xxi) for him to record and analyze.Ottenberg published a major study entitled Masked Rituals of Afikpo in 1975 in which his meticulous descriptions set the stage for two contexts for masks: a play called Okumpka and a parade called Njenje (“walk-walk”). He relied on three different ways of approaching these events: sociological (how the masquerades navigate and reflect social ties and conflicts); psychological (how the plays involve childhood states and feelings, personal reactions, and emotional triggers); and aesthetics (what is considered beautiful and ugly). Masked Rituals of Afikpo remains a hallmark example of an anthropologist looking at the complex interactions embedded in masquerades. Respected in academic circles, his work entered a new phase when Ottenberg decided it belonged in a public collection.In 2005, Ottenberg gave a sizeable assembly of Afikpo masks to the Seattle Art Museum (Fig. 2).2 His research provided exacting information about the masks, including identification with specific characters whose names, costumes, accessories, behaviors, and roles were recorded in photographs and texts. This scholarship enabled a special opportunity for the museum to suggest the ways a masquerade operates in Afikpo culture. It then dovetailed with the vivid narrative of Things Fall Apart, recognizing how Achebe initiates an outside audience into dimensions of Igbo expression with vivid prose. Quotations from the novel framed a new way of seeing maskers as performers who galvanize Igbo communities to focus on difficult decisions. Out of this unusual combination of written sources, ideas for a different display of a masquerade were born.Achebe introduces Okonkwo, his leading character, in the first page of his novel and asserts his role as a protagonist throughout the book. Okonkwo is a problematic hero. Major turning points and encounters in the village are measured by Okonkwo's reactions and his every move is observed, while his thoughts remain largely his own. Ultimately, he is a character, not an individual. According to James Olney's literary analysis, Achebe's fiction embodies an Igbo preference for not seeing anyone as an isolated agent, but akin to a character in a masquerade.This observation about the Igbo preference for studying characters rather than individuals is echoed in the list of Afikpo masks Ottenberg provided to the museum. Each mask has a name matched with a profile of the behavior that the masked spirit enacts. For example, Igri is a masquerader who is known to dance in eccentric ways, act oddly and even crazily. Ottenberg's informants said that Igri has “a propensity for youthful exuberance” and that “even the dullest person will begin acting up when he puts it on” (Ottenberg 1975: 26-20). Otten berg recorded that Igri might sometimes appear at a play, but he also gets toward the front of the line during a parade. Plays and parades were the main arenas for masquerade and had different agendas. As a counterpoint to Igri, Okpesu Umuruma is identified as a mask worn by older players outfitted in dark costumes. The mask's face is twisted dramatically, which is said to be an indication of someone who suffers from social illness, not a symptom of physical illness. Whoever wears Okpesu Umuruma is expected to portray a character who stands for the greed and selfishness of elders and the destructive force of slave traders. As part of a parade, this character defies the line that others follow and instead gambols about.Ottenberg's ongoing relationship with men who had been part of Afikpo masquerades was essential for the development of the display in the museum. He asked for the assistance of Samuel Okpara Irem (Fig. 3), then president of the Afikpo Association of America, who became fully involved with the process and kept providing goat curry and baklava to sweeten meetings with the museum staff that Carol Ottenberg helped coordinate. Irem, who grew up in the Afikpo region in the 1960s, was taken through initiation at the age of 12-13 and formed a lifelong admiration for what he calls the play and parade as “investigative journalism with a twist of comedy” (Irem 2008: 53-58). He also recalls the range of talents and skills that boys were encouraged to develop—they had to be artistic, good choreographers, compelling actors, adept musicians, and they joined together to create complex sequences that challenged their elders, who critically reviewed their presentations. With the guidance of Ottenberg and Irem, two dozen masks became the focal points of full exploration for the museum's installations.Extensive preparations were made by Ottenberg, Irem, and Seattle Art Museum staff to create the appropriate context for the masks. Sketches of each character were drawn up by myself and generated a voluminous list of distinctive clothing and accessories (Fig. 4). Many garments needed from Nigeria—such as velveteen shirts with lions whose pink tongues stick out to accent a black shirt with gold outlines, or a cap worn by a titled man, knitted with red, black, and white stripes—were itemized by Ottenberg and Irem. Accessory lists grew, with a need for goatskin arm and leg bands, wigs, fans, bells, drums, and hats, all of which Irem agreed to acquire on a trip to Afikpo. He and Ottenberg traveled there together in 2006 and managed to assemble a large volume of new and used costume elements, with the assistance of his family ally, Ohabuike Ogbu Irem.Another need that emerged was for custom designed mannequins that could not only wear the masks, but also be posed to walk, sit, or gesture in a manner that was true to the behavior of each character. This was a tall order to place in the realm of installation fabrication, as mannequins, most often purchased for the fashion industry, tend to be skinny, headless, and stand on their toes. Needing twenty-four body forms, the museum turned to Fitzgerald DeFreitas, a Seattle-based Trinidadian artist whose work constructing steel frame costumes for Carnival fueled a long career, with a competitive drive to accomplish something new every year. DeFreitas channels feats of engineering into making suites of costumes that often soar to 40 feet and must be attached to a moving body that dances for days. The assignment to sculpt a basic form for the mannequins was given to him, along with sketches of the body size, stance, gesture, and demeanor required. The mannequin bodies emerged with metal cores and Styrofoam limbs that brought each masquerader's basic shape and structure into view.Eze Anamelechi, an Igbo artist based in Seattle, came in to oversee the final dressing of the mannequins. Anamelechi added local elements to reflect the fact that masquerades require spontaneous invention every time they appear. He deployed elements such as porcupine quills, feathers, bells, and cloth streamers to accent each character. At the last minute, well-worn shoes were placed on every mannequin's feet, paying homage to accounts of switching shoes as an essential part of the subterfuge of Afikpo masqueraders. To keep viewers from recognizing a spirit, every participant in a masquerade made sure that he was wearing someone else's shoes during the event. By the end of this process of preparation, all twenty-four characters were equipped to emerge as Afikpo spirits, awaiting their chance to appear in a play or parade.Chinua Achebe's description of the heightened anticipation spreading like a wave through a crowd awaiting a masquerade conveys the sensory assault of music, voices, frenzied movements, and special effects that make masquerades into performances with indelible force. For anyone who has experienced this phenomenon, the vision of masks in a museum can be a contrastingly subdued quiet reminder of what is typically a catalytic encounter. Given the theoretical limitations in an art museum, where contextual immersion is not often encouraged due to conventions of preference given to the purity of visual experience, the closest substitute that could be found for this creative chaos was an installation that incorporated video in a new way.Just as masked spirits disrupt, needed to be altered to Seattle-based artists were asked to suggest ways to and designed a of to the of the and frame the masked they turned the up an into a of masquerades to as masked performances from a of African were on were encouraged to but not and at this of a as it was not being for close For who did to of masquerade and to a was made and also to frame a with players of a video that the form of that Okumpka players than a or the video was provided by an from who a video taken by a for his this viewers the characters into that with A dozen and an Afikpo who each with A on the of the what Ottenberg describes as the that Afikpo with it the of (Ottenberg 4). their are or and for the of the play to their Museum viewers how the play men who are called out by name by the masked spirits, who not to The of the video is in a in front of the For at a the museum is the of a and into the of a to a spirit is for His what is often said to be an Igbo preference to the in To Achebe on Okonkwo, whose is to who The Afikpo also the of wears a but they wear of their and is in the unusual parade called which in Afikpo (Fig. its recreation at the Seattle Art two in and a pink stand by as in the (Fig. a of figures who all in the same as they are in an Afikpo parade. parades rely on a narrative or and a of parades in many which involve an of with by or there is a that character stands but each the in and during of a with the parade as the main parade in the museum through and major of Afikpo from dark and wearing and of with a to to wearing and the of leading the By far the most of the spirits is the character of a who is said to to called long in Njenje parades and they have a role in the Okumpka play, and men with their an Okumpka play, such are by men who are at the stage in their when are The psychological and that is a part of their is into the For the museum's two came into with from Ottenberg and Irem about these exacting by their appear. The first is in the parade, wearing a face mask that the to an of a up as to act as a of its from a and on the move or wear of on their and a of of known as on their in a parade or play, the and of these that is to the a which to and as way with and often a of a is at the of the group of spirits the Okumpka is to be a of face is wears a white white white and a white out in front of in and a in the in a gesture that also wears a of black a of and that is called a and a pink are and out in front of in a that not nickname in Afikpo and is the of the character is on a the video of the play, a of make their each an that up and as they maintaining as most of their is in their which up and in a line of each is by a making this the act to the they and tend to that their the to a is when an masquerader wearing a mask to of the away and they of the in Afikpo plays and parades is an of the of men art has from study of Igbo points out that in as a work of for this heightened that while a mask or reflect the of Igbo life that not be it not be also the of as a way of of Ottenberg's observations and takes his work on in Afikpo (Ottenberg he points out that during their boys were very involved with their secret society and a of time in and out of masquerade costumes. from was for interactions like which encouraged boys and to and dance in the village during the and the of the when men and in an unusual of and in how is used to and to the and of As in is a visual on art and a for that is on the body of new of At the time of life when men and are and between the of and masquerades put their on the in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, it is that is of a that all masquerades rely men into The man Okonkwo the masked spirit Evil and is to with his and his someone in the audience was looking at who was and who had the same walk, they could by these distinctive that Evil was The of this of masquerades was made in the process of the Afikpo masked spirit had to a range of costume elements, the of dressing when wearing a can wear that is identified with from often from who are of the need to keep quiet they a or when they are in a spirit observations about White men are throughout Things Fall in the twentieth century, these are an of the involved interactions with English colonial and missionaries that were to By the time Afikpo masks were being in the century, English characters into the masquerades. and masks called or appear in the both Afikpo play and parade (Fig. also is given a and a and the mannequin is posed to as the of the play as a wearing an and high (Fig. who wears a Seattle Art Museum the local authority into the of as have as the Afikpo men the parade to reflect in their is a of both Achebe's novel and Afikpo but how it is made to others is not Things Fall Apart, when the first White man to his a different that him to and the of the White official the that he This became a of that was used him and his in to Afikpo for a museum audience became a about the involved in Okumpka plays are in the and and in by museum from the and that at men who as they are of the men who are and who of the video the of the people in as men in and when they are in the of the play is point of for the of (Fig. It in the of the and is in the when the a for the most To begin this unusual a masked out to he is the most man of with him and to their for the they have their as a of their who has the as the most and him the as a to be museum they be to their for the often a of the and of that is in while can be in written it often far as a to during with about out the of and what it then the Okumpka play with a and the with for than the written the an mask is a in Things Fall Apart, the of the of the the of the Afikpo masquerade in life to have the of the fictional in Achebe's the of work on this both Irem and Ottenberg to to the of the masquerade but also that they had the of this process in Afikpo (Irem 2008: the 1950s, were in the Afikpo was by Nigerian and performances were put on a of masquerades helped Afikpo but the out of in social and of masks began to appear in the to with the of a Ottenberg in a he that his book had new that masquerades were considered art by and men him, are art (Ottenberg 1989: 4). both Irem and Afikpo that be the last that a full Okumpka play was and for this of masquerade are the by and on has often taken boys away from and the time to a society who masquerades. and have on masking and and have their masquerade was with a way of when most men and boys were on and an of based on the has into with a of in and who each (Fig. both the of masked this installation of a play and parade, museum staff and Simon Ottenberg's guidance to the It a to the art museum of masks as and not full The that we are always with people who appear and but are always their that masked spirits can help people when
Source: African Arts
DOI: 10.1162/afar.a.11
Author: Pamela McClusky
Language: English
Topic: Arts and Performance Studies
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4410938937