Facial mask Idiok

In the village Ibibio as in theAnang there is a secret society Ekpo who is responsible for the cult of ancestors and who performs legal, political and religious functions. Your masks, iDiok, in many different forms and colors they try to parody some bad aspects of the conduct of the spirits of some deceased for which their carriers dance agitally. They are masks with deformations on the face or exaggerated features that reflect behavioural changes. Some of these masks are masks of disease and reflect the ravages caused by leprosy as well as bad behaviors. The mask idiokof the Ekpo represents a ghostly spirit, a wandering spirit, of a deceased who has not been able to reach the status of ancestor and its purpose is to provoke fear and annoy the living although it can also do good works or can also embody a spirit tormented by illness. For more effect the mask dances at night covered in raffia clothes. Its bearer has the power to symbolically kill the women and the uninitiated that it finds in its path.

Society Ekpo, the most important along with the Idiong, it exercises judicial functions and deals with political and religious aspects, it is also responsible for the cult of ancestors who are asked to protect against diseases and the initiation of young people. It is also the guarantor of the well-being of the village. In short, they have social control.

This mask of justice belongs to the group of talking masks for having the jaw articulated that with the movement of the dance moves when speaking its bearer. The lip too big and a thick wrinkle on the line that forms the eyebrows. And on the forehead is raised a circular headdress with a front slit between four small highlights, on each side. These highlights sometimes cylindrical and other square appear frequently in the temples and also on the forehead of this type of mask, whose meaning we do not know. Teeth carved in the upper jaw, usual thing. But curiously, on each cheek there are three parallel perpendicular lines, painted in yellow, corresponding to the scarifications of the Yoruba. The mask, made of soft wood, has suffered a severe attack by the xylophages. Black patina.