Artwork Page for Headdress

Details / Information for Headdress

Headdress

early 1900s

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker

Medium
Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal
Measurements
Overall: 67.3 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm (26 1/2 x 17 x 17 in.)
Credit Line
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1990.23
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
108A African
Print
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Did You Know?

Look closely along the sides of the nostrils, upper eyelids, and around the mouth. The impressions of twisted yarn shows how the hide was carefully held in place while it dried to precisely fit the sculpted wooden core.

Description

Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Worldwide, this practice is unique. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for girls' education in preparation for marriage. The headdress represents a girl who evokes ideal female beauty and is ready for marriage. The depicted hairstyle was worn during the coming-out ceremony following the girls’ seclusion.
A headdress of a human face with a medium skin tone is made of antelope skin stretched over carved wood. An open mouth reveals rows of bone or enamel jutting out like teeth. The hair extends up with spiral carvings like horns on either side of the head and a thicker and longer grouping in the center sticks up and spirals forward and in on itself above the forehead.

Headdress

early 1900s

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker

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