Acali Style Afikpo Igbo Mask

Herbert Cole and Chike Aniakor write in Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos that the Afikpo village group are an Edda people living close to the Cross River. The carved masks of the Afikpo Igbo are typically “fairly small and narrow, vertically oriented, and worn projecting forward from the face in front of a raffia collar” that is fastened to the wearer’s head. Most Afikpo masks are humanoid representations. In Masked Rituals of Afikpo, Simon Ottenberger writes that the Acali style is “one of the smaller and more lightweight Afikpo masks, oval in shape, with a high, narrow, rectangular, steep-sided nose with black on its ridge. The face is slightly concave,” with a traditionally Afikpo forehead projection and the absence of a distinct mouth. The most identifiable Acali feature is the “strong tear marks going from the eyes down the cheeks,” depicted on this mask in multicolored lines. Another Acali mask style example can be found on page 16 of Ottenberger’s book.

10″

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