An Ogoni Mask, "elu" Lot n° 29

Mask, "elu Ogoni, Nigeria ohne Sockel / without base Wood. H 19,5 cm. Provenance: - According to collection sheet: Galerie Alain Schoffel, Paris (1988). - Sandro Bocola (1931-2022), Zurich. elu called dance mask. The small caricatures of this mask type, with their "ascension noses," full lips, narrow eyes, and imaginative head constructions, represent a wide variety of characters. Funny-humorous and tragic-comic, they are illustrations of oral traditions in stories and songs. The Ogoni have inhabited the eastern edge of the Niger Delta in Nigeria for 500 years. According to legend, the ethnic group, which today numbers about 400,000 people and calls itself Kana, originates from the Gana Empire (9th-13th century in the border region of today's Mali and Mauritania). Culturally and linguistically, they are related to the neighboring Ibibio. Further reading: Anderson, Martha G. / Peek, Philip M. et al. (2002). Ways of Rivers. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History. CHF 400 / 800 EUR 400 / 800