BENIN PENDANT MASK (FESTAC '77)

The Benin Pendant Mask is a small ivory mask worn around the waist or neck by the Oba at Benin that is often associated with Queen Idia, who was a powerful monarch during the early sixteenth century at the Benin court in what is now called Nigeria. Two almost identical masks are extant: one at the British Museum in London and the other at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

The two masks were probably made in the early sixteenth century, when Queen Idia, mother of Oba Esigie, ruled the Benin court.

Queen Idia was the mother of Esigie, the Oba of Benin who ruled from 1504 to 1550. She played a very significant role in the rise and reign of her son. She has been described as a great warrior who fought relentlessly before and during her son's reign as the Oba (king) of the Edo people.

The British Museum and Met Museum's examples of the Benin Pendant Mask are virtually the same, with only minor decorative differences. Both pendants denote a powerful image of monarchal elegance, having a crown composed of a series of minute heads that represent bearded Portuguese men, who were significant traders with the Benin Empire at the time. The foreheads of both masks were inlaid with a pair of metal strips to denote scarification marks. The band below the chin is slightly different in the two surviving examples.

The masks were not worn on the head, but carried as a pendant from the belt. Today similar masks are carried during ceremonies to remove evil spirits, but in the sixteenth century these masks may have been used during memorial ceremonies for the ruler's mother. The white of the ivory is believed to represent the god Olokun. In this way the portrait masks are not only expensive because they are made from the valuable and tradable ivory, but their colour also represents a god associated with the wealth of the Obo of Benin

Four pectoral masks were found in a large chest in 1897 in the bedchamber of the Oba, the ruler at the Benin court. They were discovered at a time of great civil unrest during the British punitive Benin Expedition of 1897, when many artefacts were dispersed and sold to Western collectors. The British Museum's pendant was purchased in 1910 from the British anthropologist Prof Charles Gabriel Seligman. The Met example was acquired in 1972 as a gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller.

The Benin Pendant Mask has become an iconic image of Benin art and it featured on Nigerian one Naira banknotes in 1973.

The royal ivory mask was the emblem of tjhe FESTAC ’77. The hosting of the festival led to the establishment of the Nigerian National Council of Arts and Culture, Festac Village and the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. Most of the events where held in four main venues: the National Theatre, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos City Hall and Tafawa Balewa Square.

The opening ceremony of the festival took place on 15 January 1977 inside the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. One of the highlights of the ceremony was a parade of participants representing 48 countries marching past visiting dignitaries, diplomats and the Nigerian Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo. Some participants in the parade wore colourful ceremonial robes, some men were on 14-foot stilts, and Nigerian dancers carried flaming urns on their heads. To symbolize the freedom and unity of Black peoples 1,000 pigeons were released; a shango priest also set the festival bowl aflame.

The festival events usually began around 9 a.m. lasting till the midnight.