Object Name: Mask (Augum)
Cultural Group: Abakwariga peoples, Takum town
Date: Before 1965
Materials Used: Wood, enamel, paint
Credit line and Accession Number: Fowler Museum at UCLA. Gift of Arnold Rubin. X86.4717
Place of Origin/Date: Collected by Arnold Rubin, Nigeria, 1965

UCLA scholar Arnold Rubin bought this mask from a British colonial officer, J. R. Shaw, who probably obtained it after its exhibition in a Regional Arts Festival in Kaduna, the northern administrative capital of Nigeria. This special purpose may explain the decoration of the mask in black and white enamel paints. It also may have been carved originally in a Sangari workshop.

Source: Gallery Wall Text, Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley, 2011