Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund · The Cleveland Museum of Art
Image: public domain (CC0) · Museum record & image source ↗

Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Ejagham-style maker · early 1900s

Headdress

Creator not recorded by the museum

Date: early 1900s
Medium: Wood, rawhide, cane, paint, bone, natural fiber, and metal
Dimensions: Overall: 67.3 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm (26 1/2 x 17 x 17 in.)
Country / context: Nigeria
Movement / tradition: African sculpture
Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pathway: African sculpture ↗

FROM THE MUSEUM

Headdresses or crest masks made of antelope skin stretched over a carved head are a distinctive art form of the Cross River region in southeastern Nigeria and western Cameroon. Worldwide, this practice is unique. This female evocation of ideal feminine beauty was most probably worn by an Ejagham woman in the context of a female society called Ekpa, which was responsible for girls' education in preparation for marriage. The headdress represents a girl who evokes ideal female beauty and is ready for marriage. The depicted hairstyle was worn during the coming-out ceremony following the girls’ seclusion.

Collection text · The Cleveland Museum of Art · CC0

A MOMENT TO LOOK

Start with what you can see: shapes, surface, colour and scale. How might the listed materials affect the way this object was made and experienced?

Looking prompt · an invitation to observe, not a historical interpretation.

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