Background Information

The Starkweather Traditional Igbo Art collection encompasses a rich array of artistic expressions deeply rooted in the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the Igbo people of Nigeria. Igbo art is characterized by its diversity, creativity, and symbolism, serving various functions within Igbo society, including religious rituals, social ceremonies, and personal adornment. The featured traditional Igbo art collection reflects the Igbo people's rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, and artistic ingenuity. Frank Starkweather is proud to have collected this unique collection, celebrating the vibrant cultural traditions of the Igbo community.

Frank Starkweather, a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer assigned as the English Language Officer for the Ministry of Education, Eastern Nigeria, collected culturally significant art during his U.S. Peace Corps service. The pieces featured in this collection were collected in Eastern Nigeria in 1965-1966, just before the breakout of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War. Most of the collection is carved wood, but there are also examples in clay, raffia, cloth of the period, and some beads. We believe this is North America's most extensive private Igbo collection, larger and more diverse than those found in any of the major museums.

The University of Michigan Museum of Art offered an exhibition of much of this collection in 1968. At that time, Starkweather wrote a 64-page illustrated catalog, Traditional Igbo Art, in 1966. This book has found its way into many of the major African Art libraries. UMMA put only a portion of the entire collection on display, making it a unique attribute to this collection.

The exhibition at UMMA was the only time some of the collection was ever on display. Afterward, the collection went into trunk storage for nearly 38 years, unopened. In 2006, the collection was removed from storage for individual photographs, labeling, and classification. It went directly back into storage and remains a whole collection some 55 years after being featured as an UMMA exhibit.

The first phase of this website contains over 360 pictures. It is the first place the entire collection has been shared with the public. The wooden portion is made up of 125 masks, 172 statues, and 36 small divination pieces. The masks intended for ceremonial use include those worn over the face and on the forehead, with the masquerader peering out through the fabric or raffia below. The statues range from family shrine-sized ancestor figures to sets of small divination pieces used by the “dibia” (so-called witch doctors). In various styles, several ikengas range from large shrine-size down to small pocket-size. The coloration was what was traditionally in use at the time.

Other wood pieces include a large and dramatic carved door set with two side panels (in iroko wood), a small, incised ventilation door, and children’s dolls (examples of secular Igbo sculptures rarely collected or seen anywhere). There is also a carved tray from the Awka Carver’s Co-operative.

Besides wood, the collection has simple clay pieces: three small bowls from the unique pottery tradition of Inyi Village, plus two small ceramic divination pieces. An extensive group of field photographs of Ishiagu stacked ceremonial pots with figurines, not well documented previously, is in preparation to be displayed later.

The lone raffia piece is an old-style war helmet woven of heavy cocoyam leaves. It is said to be capable of "stopping a bullet from a Dane Gun," as well as a machete. This war helmet was made new by one of the few surviving old-timers from the early colonial days.

The cloth section includes:

• Old and worn shirts made from the market cloth of 1965.
• Samples from local cloth-making companies selling their wares.
• A-di-re samples of blue Yoruba cloth exported to Onitsha for Eastern Region consumption.

Beads: There are a few necklaces and a fascinating panel of ceremonial beads in dramatic turquoise colors.

Bonus! In addition to the Igbo collection are included the following items:

1. From Ikot-Ekpene, the Ibibio village adjacent to Igbo country in SE Nigeria, where there was a strong commercial carving industry at the time, two black masks, and 13 classic white children's dolls.
2. From the Niger Delta Area: Two Ijaw masks were collected through David Sinclair. Four statues from Isoko were collected for Starkweather by fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Philip Peek, who was stationed in the Niger Delta. Fun Fact: Peek went on in anthropology and became professor and department head at Drew University, New Jersey, writing many articles about the artists' activity and traditions at Benin City and the Nigerian Mid-West Region.

Included in the collection to be displayed later are hundreds of field photographs, including photos of pots from Ishiagu, several slides (of rarely photographed Afikpo ceremonies in full regalia, taken by Peace Corps Volunteer Jack Williamson), and many documented field notes. Also included are pictures of other pieces collected but never brought out of Nigeria, abandoned because of the outbreak of the war.

Locations: These pieces are from several villages, including Inyi (N. Igbo), where Starkweather collected the creations of two elderly master carvers. Placing original carvings next to those in this collection makes a fascinating side-by-side comparison. Examples also come from the communities of Imilike-Enu, Nsugbe, the Onitsha market, Uli, Ibi, the Owerri region, the Umahia/Aba region, and the Afikpo region.

Prof. Simon Ottenberg has published extensive work on Afikpo, and this collection has masks from the lead carver he worked with, plus others. In Afikpo, complete sets of character masks were obtained from two carvers, making style comparisons possible. Large sets were also collected in the nearby villages of Okpoha, Amaseri, and Edda, offering extensive scholarly comparisons as to style and rendering in a broader area. Most dramatic and fascinating is the variation in yam knife masks.

This collection was assembled just months before the breakout of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War. This claimed the lives of over 3 million Igbo-speaking people. The starvation was particularly brutal on the children and the elderly. The carvers of wooden masks and statues are men, almost always elderly, few being middle-aged. I found that none of these old carvers had any apprentices-in-training, so when they died, passing with them were the styles and shapes that were traditional and unique for their local village group.

This collection is, in essence, a snapshot in time before so much changed profoundly.

The newer Igbo pieces fabricated years after the war and finding their way to the boutiques and galleries of Europe and the USA were, at best, amateur copies of a few surviving samples or best attempts based on photographs in art books or from memory. In my opinion, they universally have a "balloon-like" appearance, more "puffed-up" compared to the classical pre-war styles. Most of them appear clumsy compared to the more refined hand of the old masters. Many of these post-war creations have been artificially aged by burying them in moist red soil and letting the ants at them. Almost all of the Igbo statues coming to America in more recent years fall into this category because the buying public often accepts this trick as genuine patina, suggesting great age, which they will pay for.

The bulk of this collection was assembled nearly 58 years ago (as of 2023), personally purchased from traditional carvers at the doorsteps of their homes, very few from commercial carving businesses. A few items, usually divination pieces, were purchased from urban market stalls. Having been in deep storage for decades, these pieces remain like new. There is no phony aging or painted-on "patina." Also in the collection are some pieces found in the galleries of New York City after the war's end.

Based on Starkweather's field notes and other records, the associated data presented are: object type, name in Igbo or English, village of origin, Province of origin in 1965, media, dimensions, year made, year collected, name of maker, context, plus additional notes on ceremonial use. The provenance is unusual and extensive.

During the occupation, many traditional pieces were stripped from the Igbo villages and sold into the international African art trading network. From there, the art was distributed to commercial galleries in the USA and Europe. In turn, it was gradually sold to private collectors. Now dispersed, these so-called "refugee pieces" are separated from their provenance, unlike this collection.

These images are available to the public to help preserve and reveal the Nigerian people's extraordinary art and design traditions. Comments and communication from interested people are welcome. Over time, we will add more photos, with brief stories, from other Nigerian Peace Corps Volunteers. Do you have any stories or pictures you would like to add to help tell the Nigerian art story?