A glimpse through the courtyard door, reveals beautiful women each grooming the others hair.
An idyllic scene and these small domestic objects, held in hand, allow us to briefly peek into the intimate lives of Igbo women in Nigeria between the 1930 and 50s.
With a function neither ritual nor ceremonial, nor related to worship or hospitality, these humble items were used by ordinary women, every day, as an aid to personal grooming. Mirrors similar to these are portrayed in Aniakor and Cole’s book, 1984, entitled: Igbo arts; Community and Cosmos, but otherwise their existence devolves from a gender specific, artistically neglected area.
Much has been written about mens’ hairstyles and about barber posters: painted advertising boards showing the latest in urban fashion. But little has been recorded regarding womens’ hair, quietly done at home, by a myriad of talented ladies.
The back of mirrors showing incised carving.
Not as delicately carved as for example Ashante combs from Ghana or as smooth and ornate as Baule combs from Ivory Coast, these mirrors made in the artistic style of the Igbo people appear largely unconsidered and overlooked by collectors and those interested in culture. Never the less, they recall the universal interest in beauty and hairdressing.
Set in an ornamental wooden frame, carved with a variety of relief patterns and sometimes rather lavish handles these mirrors were given by men to their wives as gifts. Each custom made according to the taste of the maker.
The main component was a small rectangular mirror with a metal backing, bought at trading posts. Some of these, produced in quantity expressly for colonial trade, depict images of European members of the royal families on the reverse side (sometimes with extravagant coiffures).
The carved incised designs on the wooden frame include a combination of both curvilinear and geometric imagery. These are also reminiscent of the beautiful uli designs, decoratively drawn in black by Ibo women on the body, for ceremonial occasions. The ancient history of these graphic arabesque black patterns is lost in time. Suffice to say that they formed the basis of other female art forms, like mural painting in polychrome colours. These in turn, added to the artistic repertoire of the Igbo people and became assimilated as part of their visual language.
Sculptures portray intricate hairstyles and painted uli designs
Although photography exists of womens’ hairdo’s from the 1950s in Nigeria, some traditional styles depicting large crests and 3 dimensional woven forms made from plating and binding sections of hair are recorded in other ways in their artistic repertoire: They are portrayed on ancestor sculptures carefully chronicled in iroko wood. These stylized sculptures provide an insight into the majesty and dignity of hairstyles perhaps best appreciated viewed in side profile.
Contemporary sculpture decorated in polychrome with uli designs
Peul woman
One can only imagine what they could tell, if each mirror glimpse entrapped a whispered dialogue on the daily life and love of the owner. Today these wooden mirrors have been largely replaced by plastic facsimiles in a variety of enticing colours.
