Rare Tribal Angas Dance Mask Northern Nigeria

This is a very rare beaded dance mask from the Angas people also known as the Ngas and the Kerang of Nigeria.

The mask is made of plant fibres woven together and decorated with red abrus seeds or iron zakhara in Hausa, with tufts of cotton that hang down as strands. These were used as masquerade masks for a men’s secret society called the Jankai, which is a Hausa word meaning “Red Head”. The Jankai appear during harvest time dressed in the red mask with billowing cloth robes. Elizabeth Isichei, in the article "Change in Anaguta Traditional Religion" describes the Jankai masquerade thus: "the dance is wild, and the dancer achieves an ecstatic state in which great physical feats are possible, with dizzying whirls and great bounds into the air. The dancer lashes out at bystanders with rods and thorn switches, with such violence that he must sometimes be restrained." (Isichei 1991, 43).

Similar examples are held in the British Museum collection the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures Illinois and the National Museum of Jamaica.

The mask is mounted on a bespoke carved stone base with metal rod supports and measures 76 cms in height overall and 16 cms square at the base.

The mask itself is 46 cms in height and 22 cms in diameter.

Provenance

Property of a Gentleman.

From the residual contents of Stanhope Castle, Bishop Auckland.

UK delivery is £20

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