Head crest,

late 19th–early 20th century

This cap headdress illustrates the vibrant ­tradition of ceremonial dance in southeastern Nigeria around the delta of the Cross River. The crowning element of a full-body costume, a cap headdress is worn atop the head, identifying the dancer as a spirit, ancestor, human, or animal. Hide-covered masks such as this one were produced from the later nineteenth century through the mid-twentieth. Although several cultural groups in the area have historically employed cap headdresses, the style and naturalism of this work mark it as the creation of an Efut artist. The head is sculpted from a single block of wood, as are each of its elaborate swirls of hair. Untreated animal hide, probably antelope, is secured to the form with discreetly placed tacks and coils of twine. Small wooden pegs in the upper forehead, suggesting short-cropped hair, have been lost, leaving holes around the hairline. The rich patina of the headdress results from the combination of natural oils applied regularly to preserve the hide and the soot accumulated during storage in fire-heated houses. The basketry-weave base was used to affix ties to support the headdress on the dancer’s head. This headdress is believed to depict a young woman at the threshold of maturity. The exceptional smoothness of the animal hide across the figure’s face reinforces a sense of her youth. The figure’s elaborate hairstyle is characteristic both of the ornate patterns that young women wore at their coming-of-age ceremonies and of the symbolism of <em>nsibidi</em>, an ideographic language practiced by secret societies in the Cross River region during the early twentieth century. In <em>nsibidi</em>, swirls commonly represented concepts of womanhood as well as sexual maturity. The figure’s beauty is typical of a character (known as Ikem) in a secular dance form that emerged during the early twentieth century in response to colonization. Organized around a "beauty and the beast" theme, these dances were calculated not to offend the sensibilities of British colonial officers or Christian missionaries. The ­persistence of regional dance, even if in modified form, both during and after the colonial era, demonstrates its dynamism as a cultural tradition.