African Arts Gallery

French collection of African art. Mask produced by the Kalabari, Ijo, Ijaw subgroup, established in southern Nigeria but also in Ghana. Abraded brown patina, old restorations.

The Ijo live mainly from fishing and agriculture on the southern coast of Nigeria, their villages are located in marshy areas west of the Nun River. References to their warlike and commercial past abound in reliquaries, rituals and masked celebrations. Their masks and other artistic productions are intended to honor the aquatic spirits, otojo, whom they revere and to whom sacrifices were intended. The fishermen had to be careful not to offend these spirits, otherwise they could bring down their wrath with the various dangerous animal species of the region, such as hippos, crocodiles or pythons. They also consider that all their masks, zoomorphic or anthropomorphic, Owumo, are water spirits.