Janus crest mask - Ekoi - Nigeria

Rare Janus-Cimier mask of the Ekoi, Nigeria, 1st half of the 20th century – circa 1940–70,

The Ekoi-speaking peoples (Anyang, Boki, Ejagham, Keaka and Yako) live in the southeastern Cross River region of Nigeria and in Cameroon, and are best known for their skin-covered masks, which can have one, two, or even three faces, and for their smaller heads, which depict a head or a full figure. The head and the skin-clad helmet masks are unique in Africa. Before the colonial period, slave skins were used, then antelope skins followed. The skin covering of a mask served as a magical agent to invoke ancestral spirits, thereby eroding the barrier between the living and the dead who participate in communal rituals.

Holes at the bottom and top of the mask depict hands and arms. Lack of antelope skin in some places
A pair of protrusions is present in front of each ear on one side and only a single one on the other head.