Colonial Home, Enugwu

Home of a member of the British colonial establishment, Enugu. Staged photo, 1930s(?). The people standing are named, from left: Adebayo, Kanu(?), unnamed person(?), Thomas, two "gardeners," an unnamed person, and a "cook" on the right.

In all contact with the natives, let your first thought be the preservation of your own dignity. The natives are accustomed to dealing with very few white people and those they meet hold positions of authority. The British are looked up to, put on a very high level. Don't bring that level down by undue familiarity.

– WWII instructions given to white troops stationed in West Africa. From the West African Review, January 1943.

Onye Ọcha

Onye Ọcha mask, Igbo parody of a white man during the colonial era from Amobia, part of a larger play. Apart from more serious ritual masks, a key part of many Igbo masquerading festivals are comedic and satirical masks. G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge. [Consider the photographer.]

Ghost policemen masks, symbols of colonial powers, part of the same masquerade play as the Oyibo or Onye Ọcha mask from Amobia. G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.

Abiriba School – Mission Schools

Pole Vaulting, Abiriba School, today's Abia State, ca. 1930-1940. "Missionaries first entered Abiriba, an Igbo iron-working area, in the early twentieth century. Agwu Otisi, a priest of the witch-doctors’ society, was keen to set up a school in the village and to learn about the new faith of Christianity, eventually becoming a Church Elder. The school was under the charge of Rev. R Collins." USC Digital Library.

Dogs

The other citizens, dogs from the past around the Lower Niger River area, c. 1890s–1930s. MAA Cambridge / RAI / British Museum.

Interview of an Ọ̀kọ̀nkọ̀ priest born in c. 1880s Umuopara

This is likely Nwa Agụ, in Umuahia, the leopard Ọ̀kọ̀nkọ̀ mask worn by high ranking men as the emblem of the society. The costume's chequers represent leopard spots. The masker is signing (nsibidi?). Photo: G. I. Jones, c. 1930s. MAA Cambridge.

Uwaga Okeanya, aged c.90 (an Ọ̀kọ̀nkọ̀ priest), in Ogbodiuumwu [Ogbodiukwu?], Ụmụọpara, 12 August 1972

Igbo Male Hairstyle

This is the kind of hairstyle worn by young Igbo men around the northern side of the Igbo area. The photo was taken around the 1920s. Young guys grew their hair like this for the same reasons young guys grow their hair today.

Uri Art, Bende

An ùrì drawing from Bende made by an uncredited Igbo woman artist (or group of women). Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.

Uri Art, Bende

An ùrì drawing from Bende made by an uncredited Igbo woman artist (or group of women). Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s. MAA Cambridge.

Igbo Bridge

A bridge somewhere in the Igbo country, photographed by Gustaf Bolinder, 1930-31. Etnografiska Museet.

Men and Mask

Masquerades from different cultural regions of the Igbo area photographed by G. I. Jones in the 1930s.

Masquerades representing fierce animals and mythological beasts, and often a mixture of human and animal traits, emphasise humanity’s connection with the animal and natural world which also serves to tap into the primal animal energy existing within people. The imitation of women also serves a similar purpose as both a way to tap into a specific personal trait and to police and monitor that particular section of society and nature. By appropriating the virtuous aspects of animals, the masker defines the bounds and limits of the manifestation of animal energy in the community and in people, the masks work to have that energy directed to where and when it may be useful like in times of warfare, or to prevent animal attacks. By representing women, men enforce the power to channel female energy as they feel appropriate, at the same time acting out on curiosity and out of admiration of women all while being hidden behind a mask.

Isuochi man

A man who may possibly be from Isuochi (as the album was labelled). Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s.

Isuochi man

A man who may possibly be from Isuochi (as the album was labelled). Photographed by G. I. Jones, 1930s.

Ifogu Nkporo

"Ogu wooden face mask," part of the Nkporo people's Ifogu masquerade at Elugu Nkporo in p.d. Abia State, photographed by G. I. Jones in the 1930s.

Nkporo initiates

Young male Nkporo initiates dancing masks with tall fibre extensions, eastern Igbo area (p.d. Abia State), 1930s. Photo: G.I. Jones.

Mgbe Worker

[An Igbo] spirit worker painting the walls of an mbari nearing completion. Note the double Mami Wata images at left. Photo 1930s, [Near Owere]. - Herbert Cole, 1988.

Murdering Women in Nigeria [Women's War]

The Crisis, May 1930, p. 164.

“Murdering Women in Nigeria” by Ben N. Azikiwe, better known as Nnamdi Azikiwe. This is a report concerning the Women’s War of 1929 against British taxation and the killings of women in Opobo by British forces. This was published in The Crisis, May 1930, a Black American journal for civil rights, history, politics, and culture founded by W.E.B. Du Bois as the official publication of the NAACP. The reference to the March 1930 issue is the single strip. Nnamdi Azikiwe was a key figure in Nigerian independence who later became the first indigenous Governor General of Nigeria on Nigeria’s independence in 1960 and the first president of Nigeria in 1963.

The Crisis, May 1930, p. 178.

The Crisis, March 1930, p. 98.

The Crisis, May 1930 [Google Books]
The Crisis, March 1930 [Google Books]

[Links Accessed September 19, 2018.]

Odeziaku: Poet, pederast and palm-oil merchant

John Moray Stuart-Young (1881–1939) was an English 'Uranian' poet, memoirist, novelist and merchant trader who was born into poverty in the slums of Manchester and eventually found his way to Onitsha where he later became a wealthy merchant palm-oil trader under the British colonial machine. Ostracised by the white colonial upper class in the British west African colonies, Stuart-Young was embraced by the people of Onitsha who nicknamed him Odeziaku. He grew famous in Onitsha for his stores and his 'strange ways' as well as for his lack of interest in women and his apparently unmarried status. His 'strange ways' were really his 'Uranian' tendencies, John Stuart-Young was a 'boy-lover' who took a few [very young] Onitsha boys under his wing over the years, sponsoring them and their families and leaving much of his wealth to them on his death. John Stuart-Young's perceived 'effeminate' demeanour earned him the names Eke Young and Mami Wata's Wife by the Onitsha people, names he detested, preferring Odeziaku ('writer of wealth', originally a misspelling of Odoziaku, 'treasurer'). His weird shopfronts in Onitsha town, some of the shops including 'Ye Little Wonder Shop', Half Way to Bush' (his dwelling called 'The Little House of No Regrets'), with distorting mirrors in his largest store, had his stores nicknamed Mami Wata's shrine and further linked his 'unconventional' ways with the water spirit, a figure that was largely born out of the contact between west Africans and Europeans on the coast.

As a writer Stuart-Young assumed names such as "Jack O'Dazi" and "O. Dazi Aku", carrying on from his consciously manufactured identity in Onitsha, a place far from the slums of Manchester. His articles and poems were highly regarded and printed in several African-edited newspapers which had him hailed as "West Africa's Poet Laureate". John Stuart-Young died from throat cancer in Port Harcourt on 28 May, 1939. The ceremony for his mourning lasted up to four days and was attended by 10,000 Igbo mourners; a newspaper suggested his grave should become a national shrine.

John Stuart-Young's story highlights many things about Africans and Europeans in the colonial period and the relations between them, one of the largest take aways is the unveiling of the breadth of exploitation of Africans by European colonial agents. Stuart-Young's story shows the extent to which a European could be embraced in an African society and how different identities were dealt with in Igbo society in particular.

John Stuart-Young's life and implications surrounding his identity has been expounded upon in The Forger's Tale: the Search for Odeziaku by Stephanie Newell.

An old kind of warrant chief, from The Nigeria Handbook, 1936

As a largely acephalous people*, the British colonial government found it difficult to incorporate Igbo communities into the imperialist system of indirect rule, in response to this the British set up a system in which Igbo communities elected one of their members as a “Warrant Chief” who would be given a ‘warrant’ to act as a representative of the colonial administration in their community under the 'native court’ system, including the responsibility of collecting tax. The system was not well understood by the Igbo who came to decisions via consensus which often included a debate; with the misunderstanding of what the Warrant Chief’s powers entailed, many communities elected individuals in their communities who hadn’t necessarily been significant in terms of leadership, other communities elected lineage heads and other leaders. The system became widely abused and many Warrant Chiefs amassed wealth through their positions and quickly became despised by their communities.

It was the abuse and threat of taxes by the British through Warrant Chiefs that sparked the Aba women’s movement of 1929 in which women led protests and demonstrations and skirmished against Warrant Chiefs and the colonial administration. After 1929, Warrant Chiefs were removed from power, although some of them and their descendants became big men and took up chieftaincy titles. The British then devised Native Authority Councils in which they tried to 'prefect’ indirect rule by matching it with what their intelligence reports had told them were traditional organisational structures, this included a council of elders and an elite leading the community, however, women’s roles in traditional Igbo organisation were not recognised in this system. After the exit of the British at independence, many of these leaders and their descendants sought traditional legitimisation in many ways, one such example of this was the changing of their official title of 'Chief’ to 'Igwe’ and 'Eze’ in order to further root their status in tradition, it’s not unusual to see monarchies in Igboland that were started by an individual originally and officially referred to as 'Chief’ but whose descendants are titled 'Eze’ for example.

[*Excluding some communities and excluding priest kings and the system of lineage heads who are (originally) fundamentally priests of the lineage, e.g Okpara, Di Okpara, Dede, etc, and senior communities and households.]

More information: Axel Harneit-Sievers (1998). Igbo 'Traditional Rulers’: Chieftaincy and the State in Southeastern Nigeria. Africa Spectrum Vol. 33, No. 1.

A recently married young woman in front of a dilapidated building in Awka, northern Igboland. She stands next to what Bolinder notes [in Swedish]:

when a daughter marries, the father puts out such a character that appears in the picture outside his house.“

Location: Oka, Alaigbo | Date: 1930-31 | Credit: Gustaf Bolinder

Igbo policeman mask

Unfinished [Igbo] mask of Policeman.

— G. I. Jones

Location: ?Unknown? | Date: 1930s | Credit: G. I. Jones