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Download .Pdf University of Nigeria Research Publications MOHAMMED, Kabir J. PG/MFA/88/6983 Author Author Title Art And Festivals In IgalaLand Arts Faculty Faculty Fine And Applied Art Department Department Date Date October, 1990 Signature Signature TITLE PAGE ART AND FESTIVALS IN IGALA LAND submitted to the Department of ~ineand ~ppliedArts Universityof Nigeria NsWa in Partial f dilment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Fine Arts (visual communication Cscign and PhotographyS. CERTIFICATION Mohammed Kabir Jumare a Postgraduate student in the Department of ~ineand Applied Arts and with the ~t?giStration Number PG/~~A/88/6983has satisfactorily completed the requirements for course and research work for the degree of Master of Fine Rrts in visual communication Design and Photography. he work embodied in this thesis/dissertation/ project report is original and has not been submitted in part or whole for any other diploma or degree of this or any other .. University, &I ir) + '9 .*I ," 't - iii APPROVAL- PAGE THIS THESIS HAS BEEN APPROVED FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF FINE AND APPLIED ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA - ---------------------------- EXTERNAL EXAMINER MF C.V. kMAEFUNlrH DRo L,To BET\ITU <-------------- - ----------- .............................. HE& OF DEPkR!TPiENT DEAN OF THE FACULTY DR. '.Cm ANIIiKOR DEDICATION To ad and Mom, MAryam and the children. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This project would not have been written without any dependence on interviews and literature reviews. AS this is the first research on ~rtand festivals in Igalaland, and interviews were the main sources of information, I am grateful to all that were interviewed and more especially the ~ttaof Igala - His Royal Highness Alhaji A~~YUObaje, the Achadu of Igala chief Achema, Mr. Tun Miachi, and a host of others who made valuable contributions to make this research a reality, # he photographs and illustrations used in this project were taken, developed and printed by the researcher. I am also grateful to the authors whose books, journals, handouts, intelligence reports and theses have been very helpful in making the research a reality, without which the project would have been baseless. special thanks go to God and m$ supervisor, Mr, Vo C. ~maefunah, of whom, without their direction this project will be meaningless. I also have to thank IE 0, oloidi, No Udosen and all the staff of the Department of Fine and Applied ~rts,University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal Polytechnic Idah (Library Department), Mr, Okoli (a retired ducat ion 0ffiCer)j who in one way or the other contributed to the success of this project, Mo KO mare 1990, PREFACE In studying the origins of the artistic tradition of some African cultures one is bound to become interested in the traditional festivals oi the Igala people. Igala mt and feotitrals has not been very well documented as was the case of the Tiv their neighbows. Scholars like John S. Boston,- ust tin shelton, R.G, Armstrong and Francois Nyet wrote about some aspects of Igala culture, but failed to dig deep into the visual arts most especially the artistic components that exist in the traditional festivals- The Igala in their own way, manifest in their various visuaf arts an originality that in many cases is still ignored. In order to better understand their artistic inspiration, one should turn towards the historj and origin of their artistic traditions, which are often complex with numerous influential factors, Some of which are socio-political and to a greater extent economic due to the location of the area. The study of the Igala festivals is better approached from the artistic tradition of the people, This is necessary in that the art components in the festivals cannot divorce themselves from the socio-religious life of the people. The masking tradition and the role of che art works in the festivals have been looked into, being part of their culture, This study is geared towards documentation of the most significant festivals in Igala land and the mt that is involved in those festivals, This will help in creating an awareness of the artistic treasures of the Igala, the relationship between the sacred ritual art end the -~'f religious practices of the people, This presentation may be a good reference material for further investigation into the wt of the Igala pec M~ K. Jmare -WLE OF CONTENTS 'KWE PAGE: ............ CERTIFICATION a ......... APPROVALPAGEt o.0 00. .q. DEDIC~!KONI ..- 0. e om XKNOVLEDGBIENTa ......... PREFW; ............. TkRwOFCONTENTS1 r 0. LIST OF PLATES* ........ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONSI so. so THESIS ABSTRACT3 0.0 m. MAP OF IGWWDk w..... CWTER ONE: Literature Review: ............... 1 MethodoloQy! .....O............~3 Statemerit of Problem! ............ .6 Objective of the Study! ............ .y Significance of Studyr ............ -93 b History of the Peaple; ............ 9 CHAPTER TWO: SOME NOTABLE FESTIVAbS IN IGALA T.AND Qwu Festival: ..,...........~~~'13 Ocho Festival: .........~...~~~~14 Oganyiganyi Festival 8. ~..~...~~~~~~16 Egbe Festival: ................~..18 Okwula Festival:.. ................. 20 Egonye Festivals ............... 21 , CHAPTER THREE: MASKS AND MASQUERADES Masks.: ...................*~23 The Masquerades: .............~. 31 @ viii -PAGE CHAPTER FOUR: CHkNLTERI STICS OF THE ART FORMS 0 ,. ,, IT AFFECTS DRESS, HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS 45 AND IMPLEMENTS : CHAPTER FIVE: Y b iiS ART ELEMENTS SYMBOLIC FORCE OR 57 CONCEPTUAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FESTIVALS, b ----CHAPTER SIX: THE CHAPTER SEVEN : REFERENCES/BIBLIOGR~PHY: ... ,,, 7% GOVERNMENT PUBLICIiTIONS: ,,. ,., on, LIST OF PLATES 1 A typical Igala mask used during funeral and festival ceremony, om - A crocodile shaped mask used during Mabolo festival (~gabade):,,. ... aoo ooo B Orachin costume showing the added appl~quedstars: Om* OoO .,. .a* em. The Ikeleku Ahuma mask , . l o 0.. A different type of Igala wooden mask used during the festivals baa Om* a.o ... orachin mask head dress ... ~jubejuailo mask oOO .04 Otegwu mask: OQO .Oo aO0 Egwu Oraqamu pask , ooo ooo Egwu Anyakatoro mask: .,o .Om .a* a.7m ~kweRoyal masquerade , l r. Agbanabo masquerade: .a* 40. me* .Om Inelekpe masquerade: *Om ".. .a. 04. Epe masquerade: .,, .om ...a orno a.O Ichawula masquerade: a.O a.p eo. q.0 . L Odumado masquerade: orno o.a era Ikeleku Ahuma masquerade: . 0. o 0 0. .. .. Obaje Hdeka masquerade: ooo .. \ ~gwu~fiamasquerade: ... o.o 38 The nine "Okwute melasq staffs: . 4'J The "Okwute Ule" ritual staff: om roo 41 ojo Atta; 0000 000 Orno .me a.0 42 An Ucha designed pot: aoo orno o.e eta 44 The three major Igala embroidery stitches: o,, 45 An Igala embroider at work: ,.. .ooo 46 L .) The Asu staff: Ooo moo coo -oeo 51 , DEFlNiTlON OF TERMS The following operational terms like Egwu (Masquerade) masking tradition, Iqala mela (the nine Igala royal clans), Iqalogwa (the migrant clans), ~tta(father or the king of Igala) , ~gwu-Atta (the royal masquerades 1, Attaitt~ I < 3 --7 - - 1, ( the descendents of,nth'e-%;k+)-,- E.qwu--Af ia (the ancestral \ I "talkingtt masquerades frpm ~qoru),-Oche (a major Igala ' festival), okwula (a festival of--.~d~ruarea), ~gon& ' (the yam festival at Ibaji), Eqbe (a festival at ~gume), ~ne-Ocho(Ocho festival ground), -Ababi ( a ritual buridl cloth), amulu (ritual cloth), Uqbabo (red and black robes), ainoji (nine tombs of the Eguma chiefs), Okwute *ritual stzff), Orachin (a sacred tree or mask), Ache ia powercul sacred tree), Okwute mela (nine ritual staffs), Ere-Ane (a sacred ground or place), Ateebo (the palace priest), Obaude (a royal shrine), Obi-Igala (four lobed Igala kolanut), uloko ( a sacred birdts feather), aib~(medicine) - __.._^_ monaOnu EqUma (a priest of Egbe festival), -..-a ~chclcua- (little roofs of Onuls tomb) Atakpa a (medicine) or 'bedroom) ~nyi-ebo (ancestral family shr~ne),Ora- - .-.a ggdewu (~gberoyal priest), Ote-egwu (a masquerade), Okcga (a ritual carv~ng), ~jubcju-ail0 (the Attats royal __uw. insignia), 3 (a ritual staff used by the Atta during Ocho festival), Aru Kekele (smaller rltual staff), --Onu (beaded chlef are defined wlthin the context of the study, masking tradition is the totallty of the visual -ESU >- ,3araphernalia employed dur~ngthe festivals, Thcsc include the mumasquerades, musical instruments, shrines, signs and symbols involved in the ritual proccsses, furniture, titular objects, These vigual paraphernalia constitute the Igala ~rt,In this study, greater attention is focused on the greatest artistic index representing a cross-section of the entire art forms in the Igala cluster affecting the social and # religious lives of the people, AMual festivals marked by cultural rites, conviviality and masquerading, the Igala ~rtand festival tradition has survived as a living culture whose indigenous traditional features have not been adulterated by contemporaxy developments. + In this study, the researcher probes the aesthetics contents of the Igala cults, their evolving iconography, and the potential of the festivals as a resource for further investigations into tile ~rtof the Igala, It could also serve as a source for conteniporary visual communication designs. , A -.a. TABLE OF C~I&ENV .. -PAGE \ I %. TITLE PAGE: 00 oo a mop<, o\qAq. 0.0 vro 0-0 .O. i CERTIFICATTON: lmoo 'oo,o, 0.0 ..o eo. ,.. ii AE'PROVAL PAGE: 0 oo i-.o o ooo ooo . iii DEDICjlTION: 00. 00 000 0 00 000 OD moo o 0 . iv ACKNOWLEDG~~TI.,. 0 0 0 00.0 0.0 -0 0 v PREFACE: ... 0. ooo oo moo ooo -00 .om 0.. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS: , 0. 0 o 0.0 orno . vii LISTOF PLATES: oo ooo oo .om o 00- 00. ix LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS: 0.0 00 0.0 oor 0.0 000 X THESIS ABSTRACT: 0.. oooa 00 0.0 -00 0.0 0 xi MAP OF IGRLh LAND: 000 00. 0.0 8.0 00- 0 xii CHAPTER ONE: I N T R 0 D U C T I 0 N: ... ,,, ... Literature Reviewr . ,.. ..o Methodology: oooo *.. o.o ooo Statement of Problem: .O. Sam O.O Objective of the Study: ooo o~o Significance of Study: .
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