Epa mask

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Epa mask, collection of the Horniman Museum
Epa Mask, collection of the Brooklyn Museum

An Epa mask is a ceremonial mask worn by the Yoruba people of Nigeria during the Epa masquerade. Carvings representing priests, hunters, farmers, kings, and mothers are usually depicted on the masks. They are used to acknowledge important roles within the community, and to honor those who perform the roles, as well as ancestors who performed those roles in the past.[1]

When not being used during performances, Epa masks are kept in shrines where they are the focus of prayers and offerings from community elders.[1]

History

Epa masks originated from the seventeen kingdoms which make up the

Benin empire.[3] Consequently, its population has a complex mixed ethnic origin which has given rise to some unique traditions not previously found elsewhere in Yorubaland but which have since spread to the Iyagba, Igbomina, Oshun, Owo and Ijesha regions. It is also not surprising to find that the warrior figures often surmounting Epa masks represent heroes who proved their mettle during this long period of instability.[4]

Design

Epa masks consist of a Janus faced helmet and an often elaborate figurative superstructure usually carved with a female or equestrian figure at its center. Surrounding the central figure are typically smaller figures, representing traders, musicians, hunters and other personages central to Yoruba community life. Many Epa masks bear names like 'Mother with Children', 'Owner of Many Children', 'Children Cover Me' (like a protecting cloth), 'Children are Honorable to Have', 'Bringer of Children', 'Mother of Twins', 'Nursing Mother' and many other similar appellations, which occur in the songs that accompany the dancers.[5]

The helmet is always simply carved, often with two faces, and is reminiscent of a mortar or pot. Such similarities are made explicit in the term for the helmet, tkiko ('pot'), alluding to it as a container of spiritual power and otherworldly force,

ase for communal and personal well-being.[4]

Ritual Context

In north-west Yorubaland the Epa masks are kept by the head of a lineage or a town chief on behalf of the lineage or community. When in use they are choreographed as emerging from the bush, where they return once the festival is completed. Offerings may be made to a mask before it is used or during the ceremony. According to Robert Thompson, 'the Epa cult stresses the transformation of young men into stalwart specimens able to bear pain and shoulder heavy weight'.

Ogun, the god of war and iron and to mark the growth of new crops. Elsewhere such masks were used in post-burial rites relating to titled men. In one fairly consistent episode in the festival the masquerader, supporting a mask which can often weigh 50 lbs or more, attempts to jump off a mound to augur the quality of the new year. A fall or loss of balance is read as a bad omen which may herald coming misfortune.[4]

Epa Masquerade

Early writers interpreted Epa ceremonies as entirely focused on fertility.

Eleda, who always remains behind the warrior to render him invincible in battle.[7]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1-904832-77-5. Archived from the original
    on 2011-09-10.
  2. ^ Forde, D. (1951). Yoruba Speaking People of Southwest Nigeria. London: International African Institute.
  3. JSTOR 41856778
    .
  4. ^ a b c Shelton, Anthony (1998). "A Yoruba Epa Mask by Fasiku Alaye". Journal of Museum Ethnography. 10. Museum Ethnographers Group: 121–124.
  5. ^
    JSTOR 2801941
    .
  6. ^ Thompson, Robert F. (1974). African Art in Motion. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 191.
  7. ^
    JSTOR 3335178
    .
  8. ^ Fagg, W. & E. Eliosofson (1958). The Sculpture of Africa. London: Thames & Hudson.
  9. ^ a b Carroll, K (1967). Yoruba Religious Carving: Pagan and Christian Sculpture in Nigeria and Dahomey. London: Geoffrev Chapma.
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