ukpuru:‘Odogu (ancient mother)’ Okakagbe masquerade headdress and costume made by Lawrence Ajanaku i
ukpuru:‘Odogu (ancient mother)’ Okakagbe masquerade headdress and costume made by Lawrence Ajanaku in 2003, Okpella peoples, Ogiriga, Edo State, NigeriaThe variety of contexts where the Okakagbe masquerade performs, the opportunities for both local and national competition and the subsequent recognition it entails amongst Okakagbe dance troupes, certainly suggest why the Okpella costume maker Lawrence Ajanaku has become one of the most respected Okakagbe appliqué costume makers. It follows then that Ajanaku has received regional acclaim, and more recently, international acclaim, as his work has found its way into several important museum collections. Okakagbe masquerade performances are composed of a troupe of five or six different characters, each wearing an appliqué costume, and a bush monster character whose costume is made out of materials assembled from the forest. The most senior dancer in the ensemble is seen here and is called Odogu, or Ancient Mother, and represents an anthropomorphized nature spirit. Odogu is clearly identifiable by the appliquéd cloth costume, the elaborate headdress surmounted by a number of stuffed cloth figures, referred to as “children,” and long, flat breasts that signify she has nurtured many children. She is often and appropriately accompanied by a masked child performer called Okeke or “little one.” Okakagbe masked dancers were introduced into the northern Edo area by an itinerant carver and blacksmith named Okeleke, who came from Ibaji, the Igbo-Igala borderland area on the opposite bank of the Niger River. Research indicates that the style of the masks and their performance are linked to Igbo masquerade traditions. Certainly there is a strong stylistic similarity to Igbo maiden spirit masquerades as they also connote a strong symbolic relationship between ideal human beauty, moral purity and material wealth.— Smithsonian National Museum of African Art [+] -- source link