Original

Igbo names and spellings for various settlements
Abakaliki is Abankaleke; Afikpo is Ehugbo; Awgu is Ogu; Awka is Oka; Bonny is Ubani; Enugu is Enugwu; Ibusa is Igbuzö; Igrita is Igwuruta; Oguta is Ugwuta; Onitsha is Onicha; Owerri is Owere; Oyigbo is Obigbo... any more will be added.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Rumuji Owu play, the character is Abam (one who has visited placeds and learnt things) and the figure represents a fierce fish spirit. The headpiece is a long horizontal carved piece with a pointed head depiciting sharp incised teeth, round eyes, and fins on the sides and top. The headpiece is painted in different colours. On top of the carving is a square cloth panel (like a sail) that has four pieces of cloth sewn in the centre. The masquerader is draped in block printed cotton cloth. In the background are spectators.
— G.I. Jones

Location: Rumuji, Alaigbo? | Date: 1930s | Credit: Jones

Sunday, October 7, 2012

“Horse funeral” ceremony, Amachara village, Afikpo Village-Group, Nigeria (1951-1953).

“Horse funeral” ceremony, Amachara village, Afikpo Village-Group, Nigeria (1951-1953). When a mature male dies his eldest son is responsible for burial and the funeral ceremony. The burial is followed by a series of related rituals, which generally continue to express the relative positions of the descent groups. The first is the ‘goat funeral’. This ceremony is followed by the ritual of placing a shrine pot for the deceased in his ancestral house. At any later time the deceased’s eldest son may perform the ‘cow funeral’, giving his father’s matrikinsmen a cow, and a horse as well if he is rich. The ceremony is optional, and is a prestige ritual to honor the father and display the son’s wealth.”
[Ottenberg, 1968: Double Descent in an African Society; The Afikpo Village-Group, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1968].

Location: Amachara, Ehugbo, Alaigbo? | Date: Early 1950s | Credit: Ottenberg
Interior of Chief’s Compound. I[g]bo.
— P. A. Mc C, 1870-1900.

Location: ?Unknown?, Alaigbo? | Date: 19th Century | Credit: "P. A. Mc C"
24 Feb 1905. Ikot-ekpende. [Aro-Igbo] bride and her mother. [In Ibibio territory where the Aro (originally from Arochukwu from what is now Abia State Nigeria, but settled all over eastern Nigeria) were known as Inokun, now Akwa-Ibom State, Nigeria]
— Charles Partridge
Location: Ikot Ekpende | Date: 24 February, 1905 | Credit: Charles Partridge

Thursday, October 4, 2012

“I[g]bo MBARI house. 28/2/46. at EBELE, OWERRI [now in Imo State, Nigeria]. Figures of telephone operators”
— William Fagg.
Location: Ebele, Alaigbo | Date: 28 February, 1946 | Credit: Fagg
The interior of an Obu meeting house in Asaga village showing two large life-sized figures of a male and female standing on a raised platform.
— G. I . Jones
Location: Asaga , Ohafia, Alaigbo | Date: 1930s | Credit: Jones

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

An [female] Ikenga figure seated on a stool with an elaborately carved headdress holding a staff in one hand and a mirror in the other.
G. I. Jones.
Location: ?Unknown?, Alaigbo | Date: 1930s | Credit: Jones
A Ngbagba Ikoro masquerade with a close up view of Otiri, the principle masquerade character. The mask of Otiri consists of a circular base with layers of white feathers adorning it; the head is shrouded in a woven cloth. In the background is a thatched building.
— G. I. Jones, 1930s.
Location: Mba Miri, Alaigbo | Date: 1930s | Credit: Jones