Ogoni

The Ogoniabout 500 thousand people live like many other ethnic groups in the fertile lands of the Niger Delta, in southern Nigeria, near the coast. They are originally a village of fishermen and growers, especially yam. Traditionally of animistic religion they firmly believe that a person can be transformed into an animal, mainly in the times of sowing and harvest. For several centuries they knew how to confine themselves and remained isolated from the slave trade. They manufacture large polychrome masks, horizontal scimers and fertility dolls, but they are certainly better known for their masks with articulated jaws in which wooden teeth are often inserted. The Ogoni have two main categories of masks: family masks, intended to be hung or placed in some pre-eminent place of the house and masks intended to be used in agricultural ceremonies held during yam harvests. In the playful part of these parties dance with spectacular acrobatics the Karikpo mask, of the society of the same name, which seems to have received the influence of society Ibibio Ekpo.