Mask, made from hard, black wood in form of goat's head, with movable jaw and beard of vegetable fibre.

Ekpo is the Annang word for ‘ancestor’ and also for the most important masquerade association. The masqurades of the Ekpo association commemorate the dead. This mask depicts an ancestor spirit, ekpo, in the form of a ram. The circlet shown worn beneath the horns indicates that the ancestor represented was a member of the diviners’ society, idiong. Members of the men’s ekpo society perform masquerades at funerals and at an annual festival.

Collection Information

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