Acknowledgements

Warren Ziegler, Peace Corps Director, Eastern Nigeria, pulled me out of the Uli Bays Secondary School, Eziama-Uli, Eastern Nigeria, in 1965, and reassigned me to the Eastern Nigerian Ministry of Education, Enugu, as an English Language Officer. There I was in charge of upgrading the English language teaching abilities of all expatriate teachers. This included the US Peace Corps, Canadian Volunteers Overseas, and British direct hires. Together, with a language specialist from Canada, hired by the UN, and a similar trainer supplied by the British Council, we regularly conducted weekend teacher training sessions to up-grade the abilities of Nigerian elementary teachers as well.

During the week I would travel across the Eastern Region, dropping in on Peace Corps teachers to help them in their classrooms, improving their own language teaching abilities. After school I would take time to explore the local village looking for traditional carvers. Most people told me there weren’t any, but I found many. Without the Jeep station wagon supplied by Warren Ziegler, the assemblage of this collection would never have been possible. While at Uli, I built a house for myself using my Peace Corps salary. It was the first staff housing at the young school. When Warren reassigned me to Enugu, he bargained with the principal and negotiated a sales price for the house. Those unexpected proceeds provided the funds for me to buy traditional Igbo art. Without Warren, none of this would have happened.

Robert Farris Thompson, Professor of African Art History, Yale University, recently deceased. Bob invited me to Yale on several occasions in the 1970’s, to give seminars for interested students, and to plan on how to go forward with this collection. He was especially excited by the water colors of Afikpo masquerades, painted by the teenager Fidelus Orji Arua. These have never been displayed, but will be added to this website in due time.

Professor Simon Ottenberg, University of Washington, Emeritus. At the time of this writing, Simon had reached the age of 100 years. His work in Afikpo has set the standards for quality in the research and presentation of traditional African art and ceremony. The recent extra-ordinary display of life size Afikpo masquerades at the Seattle Museum is absolutely ground breaking. I was able to meet the main carver Ottenberg worked with in Afikpo, named Chuku Okoro. I collected several of Okoro’s masks, which were executed at the highest level of expertise. These can be seen in the photos on this website, along with other pieces done by other secret men’s society carvers of the time, including those from other villages surrounding Afikpo.

Simon asked me to send him a few pieces from my collection, which he did not have, to be put on display with the work he was doing in Seattle. I felt honored to help him out. A few weeks after I learned of his 100th birthday, I sent him an email (October 2023) congratulating him and asking if he had any unpublished pieces he would like to add to this website. I received no reply, and a week later, I learned he had “just gone to be with the ancestors." To which I say in Igbo: “Chukwu gaw zie ge, Ndeewo”, and in English: “God bless you. Thank you.”

The following people have served as the Informal Advisory Group:
They are fellow Nigerian Peace Corps Volunteers serving with me in 1964-1966.

Donald Cosentino, PhD, African Languages, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lecturer, Amadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria, 1976-1979. UCLA Professor of African Cultural Studies, 1979-2015, Emeritus: co-editor African Arts Journal, 1988-2006: Don was a Peace Corps teacher at St. Mary’s Higher Elementary Training College. Abak, via Ediene, Eastern Nigeria, 1964-1966. He also went on to become the Washington D.C. Desk Officer for Peace Corps/Nigeria, 1967-1968.

Philip Peek, BA-University of Oregon, 1964, English Literature: M.A.- University of California, Berkeley, 1968. Folklore and Anthropology: PhD-Indiana University, in Folklore, Anthropology, African Studies, 1976: Professor of Anthropology, Drew University 1972-2009, Emeritus: Research Associate, Smithsonian Institution, 2012-ongoing. Phil has presented more than 85 papers to such professional organizations as the African Studies Association, and the Triennial Symposium of African Art, among many others. He has been invited to lecture at 16 museums and universities in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the USA. He has published more than 60 academic articles, and 8 books, primarily on Lower Niger Bronzes an, but also on African communication systems. In addition, he has curated nine exhibitions of African Art. Phil was a Peace Corps teacher at St. Michael’s Teacher Training College, Oleh, Mid-West Nigeria.

Mary Blocksma graduated with a degree in English from Wheaton College (Illinois) in 1963 and earned an M.A. in Creative Writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1964. She joined the Peace Corps in 1965, serving as a lecturer at the University of Eastern Nigeria, Enugu. In 1966, she was appointed as school library administrator at the Ministry of Education for 1,200 secondary schools, and she edited a school library journal for African schools. She was evacuated from the Biafran War in 1967, after which she earned an M.L.S. from the University of Michigan. Mary became a librarian at DePaul University in Chicago and later the public library director in Laramie, WY. Before going freelance, she moved to Boston to write for the Addison-Wesley Publishing Company’s new elementary reading program. Mary has written and sometimes illustrated over twenty nature, travel, and children’s books. She once lived on Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan for seven years before moving to Bay City, Michigan, where she currently resides. She is an amateur mycologist and painter. For more information, go to her website: maryblocksma.com.

Sara Hollis aka Sally Kinkel was raised in Indiana. She got her first college degree at Cal State Long Beach. She then served in the Peace Corps at Government Teacher Training College in Abraka, mid-west Nigeria, from 1964 – 66. After returning, she earned an M.A. in African Studies and Cultural Anthropology from Indiana University. Continuing her studies, she earned a doctorate in African American Studies and Humanities at Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta). She taught at Bishop College in Dallas, Texas, and since 1973, has been on the faculty at Southern University in New Orleans, where she teaches in the M.A. Museum Studies Program. She has helped the university collect over 2,000 pieces of African art from a number of donors. She also worked tirelessly to convince the Southern University System to build a museum on SUNO’s campus, which is now a reality. Sara (Sally) is the Arts Editor for the Friends of Nigeria group newsletter and was recently added to the FON Board.

From the University of Michigan:

Prof. Ray Silverman, PhD, University of Michigan African Arts Department, Emeritus, has been especially helpful, particularly by staying in touch with former Nigerian Peace Corps Volunteers who went on in African Studies, and helped bring to prominence the academic field of African Arts. I want to give special thanks to Prof. Silverman. He arranged to have the U of M staff make the pdf. copy of the 1968 University of Michigan Museum of Art exhibition catalog “Traditional Igbo Art 1966”. This was done in the spirit of making this collection more readily accessible. It has been out of print for over 55 years. He also contributed the spread sheet used to collect all of the data for the several pieces.

On the Technical side:

Kevin Smith, Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Michigan State University, of Saginaw, Michigan, (my son-in-law), has done a masterful job on developing this website. We appreciate so much his extensive hours and attention to detail.

John Smith of Bay City, Michigan, took the bulk of the photographs years ago.

Liberty Starkweather Smith, my daughter, took all of the last-minute photos, including the fabric pictures, and has acted as editor.