Playing Okwe

Location: ?Unsure?, Alaigbo | Date: ?Unsure?, Before 1921 | Credit: Basden.

Onicha bronze bell

A Bronze Bell from Onitsha Province, Nigeria.

SIR,—The bronze bell was seen and photographed by Mr. K. C. Murray in the Nsukka (Ibo) division of the Onitsha Province, Nigeria. According to information given to Mr. Murray by local blacksmiths, such bells are still being made. The general character of the workmanship appears to me to resemble that of the bronzes recently discovered at Igbo [Ukwu] in the Awka division of the Onitsha Province, and published in MAN, 1940, 1. G. I. JONES.

— Jones

Location: Onicha, Alaigbo | Date: 1940 | Credit: K. C. Murray

Igwe Ahaba and his attendant

Grades of chiefs.—The first and highest grade is that of Igwi [Igwe]. The distinguishing mark is a circle of broom (termed Aziza, from the palm tree), knotted before and behind, with upturned ends a couple of inches or so in length.

This circle is usually worn round a red cloth cap, rather like a flattened fez, but is occasionally worn round a brown one, and, when work has to be done, even on the uncovered head. In addition, the Igwi carries a circular fan made of untanned cow-hide, usually ornamented with red cloth strips or some similar decoration,and a short thin handle. This is the Azuzu. Finally, a short-handled many-thonged fly-flick is common, and is carried in the hand or over the shoulder. This is the Ijappa. Ivories round ankles or wrists are very usual and are termed respectively ordu uku (ivory [for] foot) and orku uku (ivory [for] hand).

Thumb rings are known as umbáká orpupu (literally ring bone).

A horn, which, when properly blown, produces a long discordant note, is called Oturu aka, and is often carried by an Igwi. The origin of the name Oturu aka is doubtful; the instrument, in the form of a slightly bent cone, is made from the canine of a hippopotamus, the horn of a cow, etc.; it is blown through a small rectangular slit half way down the length, and is open only at one end.

Location: Ahaba, Alaigbo | Date: 1906 | Credit: L. H. L. Huddart

Scabbard and other Igbo Ukwu items

From top left to bottom right: Okpogho (Manilla), crescent-shaped bowl, scabbard. 9th century, Igbo Ukwu (Ora-eri)

Location: Studio | Date: 1940 | Credit: J. O. Field

War helmets

War helmets to protect the head against blows,Ibo

— M. D. W. Jeffreys

Location: Studio | Date: ?Unknown? | Credit: M. D. W. Jeffreys

Onicha Mourning

The prominent Elder, Omenyi, dances in the chamber with some other Otu Odu women, holding her Peace Fan in her right hand. The black Horsetail Switch (normally carried in the mourner's left hand) is draped over her shoulder as she dances.

— Richard Neal Henderson, http://amightytree.org/

Location: Onicha, Onicha Ado, Alaigbo | Date: 1961 | Credit: Richard Neal Henderson, amightytree.org/

Mbari House

The author with the priest-in-charge of the Mbari house at Ulakwọ, January, 1935. The priest, as will be noticed, is a dwarf.

Location: Ulakwọ, Alaigbo | Date: January, 1935 | Credit: Basden

Ibini Ukpabi

The approach to the Long Ju-Ju is through dense bush, which gradually becomes thicker and thicker until one arrives at the entrance of a deep oval-shaped pit, seventy feet deep, sixty yards long, and fifty yards wide. One then climbs down the precipitous sides of the rock into a narrow gorge and into running water, up which one wades, passing under two fences, until one finally comes to a place where the water comes out of the solid rock in two big streams, which unite below a small island, on which are two altars, one made of many trade guns, stuck muzzle downwards into the ground and topped with skulls, the other being of wood and supporting more skulls, bones, feathers, blood, eggs, and other votive offerings to the Ju-Ju, including the head of the last victim. Over the rock, where is the source of the water, is a roof of human skulls with a curtain, the top part of which is composed of clothes and the lower part of native matting, screening the rock and hanging just short of the water's edge. The lower portions of the rock composing the other side of this crater are draped with mats only. On the left of the entrance, centrally situated, and opposite the island, has been hewn out of the rock a flat-topped ledge for sacrificial purposes. The water, about twelve inches deep, is full of tame grey-coloured fish, about two feet in length, with long suckers and glaring yellow eyes, which have a most bizarre appearance as they glide noiselessly through the clear water in the dim light of this charnel-house of fetish lore, which is roofed with densely intertwined creepers. These fish are regarded as sacred. On the left of the exit lies another pile of human skulls and other relics of Ju-Ju rites, and on the left the last sacrifice--a white goat, trussed up in the branches of a palm tree and starving to death. The conducting of a visitor to the Ju-Ju is usually a somewhat lengthy process, and when he arrives in its proximity he is led by a circuitous route and finally marched in backwards. It would seem to be a fair estimate to put the number of pilgrims down at about five hundred annually, all of whom pay dearly for the advice or decree which is vouchsafed to them. Probably the number of human sacrifices does not reach a total of fifty per annum, while about 200 people are sold into slavery, and the remainder are allowed to go away free.

— Reuter, Daily Graphic

Location: Ibini Ukpabi, Arochukwu, Aro, Alaigbo | Date: 1902 | Credit: Reuter from a member of the Aro Field Force