Object Assessment Project
No. J0014
This
twisted copper alloy anklet is attributed to the Ibibio people of the Calabar
Province in Southern Nigeria.
According to UCL records the anklet is categorised as body decoration
and currency.
The anklet consists of a single strand of copper alloy, which would have been heated to become more malleable then folded and twisted around itself. The anklet would then have been shaped into a coil around the wearer. The anklet is in a stable condition with small signs of corrosion. There is however an extensive amount a dirt caked into the creases of the twist.
The anklet consists of a single strand of copper alloy, which would have been heated to become more malleable then folded and twisted around itself. The anklet would then have been shaped into a coil around the wearer. The anklet is in a stable condition with small signs of corrosion. There is however an extensive amount a dirt caked into the creases of the twist.
Fig 1: Two views of the copper alloy anklet (Top and bottom)
In pre-colonial Africa currency bracelets
also known as manillas or ‘okpoko’ to the indigenous of Calabar, were considered
a form of currency. The oldest
examples of this type of currency were usually copper or bronze and originated
within the Calabar province.
Copper was considered the ‘red gold’ of Africa and was the primary metal
for exchange within the province.
However, manillas used for trade were
traditionally more simple in design then this. A basic horseshoe shape with enlarged oval shaped flat
ends. They were also quite small
barely large enough to fit around an adult human wrist. Larger more elaborately decorated
manillas such as this object were a very different type of currency. These “king and queen” manillas; as they
have become known to the historical and collector community; were used for
ceremonial purposes rather then trade.
They were a display of wealth and a representation of an individual of
high status. Manillas such as this
anklet would have been given as gifts for major events such as a birth or
marriage.
Manillas and currency bracelets
were replaced by western currencies by the end of the 19th century
however the use of manillas in a ceremonial context extended until present
day. For this reason it is
impossible to date the above anklet.
The anklet was donated to the collection by an M.D.W Jefferys, a South
African anthropologist, at some point before his death in 1975. However he most likely acquired the
anklet during his travels to the Calabar region as part of the British
Cameroons in the 1940s.
The
anklet is an important addition to the collection in that as a ceremonial
manilla, it represents a tradition of a display of wealth, which was adopted
and warped into a form of intercontinental currency, that would later financially
support the African slave trade.
Bibliography
Edwards, E. (2010)
Rethinking Pitt-Rivers, Object Biographies. Balfour Library:Pitt-Rivers
Museum. http://web.prm.ox.ac.uk/rpr/index.php/objectbiographies/78-manilla/index.html. Accessed: March, 23, 2018.
Reese, A. (2000) ‘Manillas’, Coin News, 46-47
April, 2000.
Einzig, P. (1949) Primitive Money, in its ethnological, historical and
economic aspects. Eyre &
Spottiswoode: London.
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