Igboland-- Symbols of the Body and Home

 I am seeking to find the connection between the symbolism of Igbo designs in scarification and textile with that of the Igbo home and compound, this facade detailing and decoration is extremely important for my analysis. 

“Personal decoration,” as noted in Igbo Arts: Community and Cosmos, are particularly important for the individualism of art in Igbo culture. This permanent or additive expression via the body can extend to architecture as well and express status, hierarchy, or achievement as well as celebrating the human body and aesthetics (Cole, 24). 

The dress and markings of the Igbo people are enhanced to meet the societal standard of the period. The ceremonial imagery and symbols are most unique and expressive within the culture. The “human armature is usually activated by music and dance, for which body arts are specially designed, and the village arena becomes a place of presentation and play” (Cole, 34). This additive nature is fascinating as it emphasizes not only the transient nature of the adornment, but the empennage activity or celebration itself— eventually faded or “peeled off'' to reveal the familiar every day again. 

The ability to create a “public self” (Cole, 34) or extension of the self is also vital to the prominence in scarification or Ichi (face scarification). Markings can express the Ozo title, while also serving as a test of courage to withstand the pain. The patterns are parallel intersection lines, and crescent shapes, with names and symbolism sadly lost to us due to the lack of systematic recording of the name and titles. Patterns also included nsibidi, mbubu which indicated that a person had abilities to exist in adult society. Particularly important as many wore little to no clothing. 

Body painting through camwood powders or chalks was also used for spiritual, medicinal, and aesthetic reasons (Cole, 39). Uli was a women’s craft similar to wall painting. A brown paste is created from plant matter and painted onto, the pigment eventually turns blue to adorn the body. The asymmetry and patterning play with the physical enhancement of the body—adding more sumptuous designs to a thinner girl, for example— while also expressing a narrative of beauty. It is said that the bride adorned with uli is beautiful, yet as the uli fades as does her beauty, alluding to the transience of youth. 

The play on the Uli design and wall decoration have differences in the difference of surfaces and the pigments used. The body painted arts symbolized temporality for a special occasion, and similarly, the decoration of a funeral area might typically be adorned with patterned cloth/ handwoven fabrics with “weft designs” were typical of funeral drapings of the Asabam, the subtlety of white on white patterns was also typical. Akwete cloths are the grandest Igbo cloths, their weft-float patterns most likely were first woven in the mid-19th century and were inspired by the Yuroba Ijebu-Ode cloths in trade with the delta area. Some locally spun thread, though most used European materials. This intercultural nature is also a necessary exploration for my research.

The permanence of carvings and painted entryways of homes and compounds in particular, add to the discussion of the architectural use of patterns to symbolize rank, beauty, and status throughout Igboland.