Okoroshi Oma mask

 

This mask, Okoroshi Oma, like the Okoroshi Ojo participates in the rituals destined for the cult of water, Owu, rituals that are celebrated during the rainy season that, with intermittances, lasts almost a month and are celebrated in much of the territory IgboThese rituals are the occasion for the manifestation of the water spirits, Okoroshi.

Okoroshi Oma is a benevolent, feminine mask that represents goodness, beauty and light. His face is white just like his clothes. In front of the group of good spirits Okoroshi Oma, the evil spirits embodied in the Okoroshi Ojo masks, painted in black, are opposed in dance. They represent ugliness and darkness, they are called the “punishment of God” (Ike chi). They carry a whip in their hand and adopt a threatening attitude. Their dances represent the duality between good and evil, day and night or clarity and darkness, beauty and ugliness, clarity and mystery, fertility and aridity.

Oval-looking mask. A straight line goes down from the top of the forehead to the nose, separating the nasal fins in a semicircular way. Tiny oblique eyes, at different height and with different degree of inclination. The eyebrows, in relief, mark the separation between the face and a forehead divided into two semicircles so it pretends to be the headdress, which goes down to the eyebrows. The mouth, with its lips in relief, shows two rows of elongated teeth. Two elongated scarifications come from the lower part of the eyes to the sides of the face, to the alturta dee the nose, dividing it into two parts. He's lost his white color in the course of time. Old patina.