Water Spirit Mask from Ijo People of Nigeria

This water spirit mask from the Niger Delta is a very old example of this type of mask, exhibiting a patina with old thick incrustation. Having a triad of horns and a long snout w/scalloped edges, leads one to believe of an antelope and a crocodile.
It is can be very misleading to try and attach Western interpretations to these complex West Africa zoomorphic objects, though tempting because these Ijo/ljaw people lived on the river system of the Niger Delta and do have Crocodile masks.
This falls into a style category of being a horizontal plank headdress, worn on the head rather than on the face.
Whether it is worn on the face or as a headdress this mask's function fits into the concept of the masquerade and the identity of the wearer is unimportant as it does represent a water spirit in some form. It is this type of mask amongst others that greatly influenced the imagery of Modern art and Cubism. This group of masks and sculptures of the ljo/ljaw people exhibited a high degree of abstraction rather than representational art and their meanings are still not fully understood by the anthropologists and art historians.