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Bamileke Monkey

TITLE: Bamileke Monkey
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Cameroon
ETHNICITY: Bamileke
DESCRIPTION: Monkey Mask
CATALOG ID: AFCM007
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Agriculture; Celebration; Funeral; Status
AGE: 1970s-1980s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: pigment

The Bamileke people of the Cameroon grasslands are closely related to their neighbors, the Babanki and Bamoun peoples, and have similar artistic styles. The Bamileke society is highly stratified by lineage, with certain royal lineages exclusively entitled to wear certain masks.  Lineage masks may represent persons, such as the kam, ngoin, or animals, and are used principally at funerals and annual harvest festivals. The kam mask is reserved for royalty and is the highest ranking mask, with ngoin, his wife, also highly ranked. Animal masks like this one are open to non-royal lineages to use, except for the exalted elephant mask.

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Bamileke Kam Crest

TITLE: Bamileke Kam Crest
TYPE: crest mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Cameroon
ETHNICITY: Bamileke
DESCRIPTION: Kam crest mask
CATALOG ID: AFCM006
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Agriculture; Celebration; Funeral; Status
AGE: 1980
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: glass beads; adhesive; yarn

The Bamileke people of the Cameroon grasslands are closely related to their neighbors, the Babanki and Bamoun peoples, and have similar artistic styles. The Bamileke society is highly stratified by lineage, with certain royal lineages exclusively entitled to wear certain masks.  Lineage masks may represent persons, such as the kam, ngoin, or animals, and are used principally at funerals and annual festivals for the harvesting of crops. The kam mask is reserved for royalty and is the highest ranking mask, with ngoin, his wife (whose mask is similar but in a helmet shape), also highly ranked.

Bamileke masks are typically made of carved wood, sometimes with white kaolin clay coloring. This one is assiduously beaded, which indicates the high status of the wearer, as beads and brass are materials reserved to chiefs and their kin.

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Babanki Elephant Crest

TITLE: Babanki Elephant Crest
TYPE: crest mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Cameroon
ETHNICITY: Babanki
DESCRIPTION: Elephant Crest
CATALOG ID: AFCM005
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Celebration; Funeral
AGE: 1980
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: glass beads; dried seeds; wicker

The Babanki people of the Cameroon grasslands are closely related to their neighbors, the Bamileke people, and have similar artistic styles. The Babanki worship ancestral spirits and collect their skulls as the patrimony of the lineage. Babanki society is highly stratified by lineage, with certain royal lineages exclusively entitled to wear certain masks.  Lineage masks may represent persons, such as the kam, or animals, like this one, and are used principally at funerals and annual festivals. The elephant mask is reserved for lineages close to royalty, and the wearer of this mask assumes the second most prestigious position after the human mask.

Babanki masks are typically made of carved wood, sometimes with white kaolin clay coloring. This one is assiduously beaded in the style typical among the Bamileke people.

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Yaure Lo Mask

TITLE: Yaure Lo Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
ETHNICITY: Yaure
DESCRIPTION: Lo mask with drum player figure
CATALOG ID: AFCI011
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Je Ceremony
AGE: ca. 2005-10
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: kaolin clay; pigment

The Yaure people of Côte d’Ivoire are avid and skilled wood carvers. They have two main types of masks, the yu spirit and the lo spirit, and both are used in the Je Ceremony at funerals.  The yu masqueraders dance first to convert the dangerous yu spirit from a threat to the village into its protector. Lo masks like this one are danced last and help release the spirit of the dead for its journey to the next world. Unlike the brightly painted yu masks, lo masks are left dark.

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Djimini Do Society Mask

TITLE: Djimini Do Society Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
ETHNICITY: Senufo (Djimini)
DESCRIPTION: Triple-Faced Mask
CATALOG ID: AFCI004
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Celebration; Funeral
AGE: ca. 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: n/a

The Djimini people are a subgroup of the much larger Senufo people and reside primarily in Côte d’Ivoire, with some also living in Burkina Faso and Mali. The Do Society dances masks of various kinds, frequently employing animal elements, at the funerals of important members of the village and on major Islamic holidays.

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Malagan Tatanua

TITLE: Malagan Tatanua
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Oceania
COUNTRY: Papua New Guinea
SUBREGION: New Ireland
ETHNICITY: Melanesian
DESCRIPTION: Tatanua Mask
CATALOG ID: OCPG008
MAKER: Unknown maker in Libba Village
CEREMONY: Malagan Ceremony
AGE: 2006
MAIN MATERIAL: Alstonia wood
OTHER MATERIALS: wool; plant fibers; tapa cloth; cowrie shells; pigment

New Ireland is a large island belonging to Papua New Guinea and inhabited by Melanesian peoples. The inhabitants of New Ireland organize a Malagan Ceremony upon the death of a tribe member to honor his or her memory and ease the transition of his or her soul to the spirit world. The family members of the deceased fashion the masks to resemble the dead individual and to forge a link between that person and the spirit world into which he or she is passing. Only persons of high status may participate in the masked dance.

This specific mask was made and ritually used in Libba Village in 2006.

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Baule Kplekple

TITLE: Baule Kplekple
TYPE: plank mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
ETHNICITY: Baule
DESCRIPTION: Kplekple Male Plank Mask
CATALOG ID: AFCI008
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Goli Society
FUNCTION: agricultural; celebration; entertainment; funeral; secret society; spirit invocation
AGE: ca. 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: kaolin clay; pigment

The Baule people of Côte d’Ivoire use many kinds of cultural masks and are known for the artistry and skill of their carvers. Several mask types are used in the Goli Festival, a day-long harvest celebration with music and feasting, where the masked dancers are members of the Goli Society and serve the primary function of entertainment. This mask is danced at the beginning of the Goli Festival by young boys. It is also worn at funerals to honor important personages in the village, and during droughts and famines to pray for rain and abundant harvests.

The kplekple dancers perform in pairs, usually with one male (primarily black) and one female (primarily red) mask. This mask is male. Kplekple dancers wear a suit of plant fiber that covers the entire body, an animal pelt on the back, and metal anklets that jingle as the dancer moves. The dance itself progresses from wild and aggressive, mimicking the putative behavior of bush spirits and young tribe members, to more sedate, mimicking the transition to maturity and civilization.

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Kwakwaka’wakw Bear Mask

TITLE: Kwakwaka’wakw Bear Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: North America
COUNTRY: Canada
SUBREGION: British Columbia
ETHNICITY: Kwakwaka’wakw
DESCRIPTION: Na̱n (Bear) Mask
CATALOG ID: NACA002
MAKER: Stanley Clifford Hunt (Fort Rupert, Victoria, 1954- )
CEREMONY: Potlatch
AGE: 1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: red cedar wood
OTHER MATERIALS: paint

A potlatch is a culturally important ceremony among the coastal indigenous Americans of British Columbia, held on many different occasions.  It could be held to celebrate a family member’s change in social status, such as a marriage, birth, death, or initiation into adulthood.  It could also be held to restore a person’s prestige after a loss in dignity, such as falling out of a canoe or making a hunting error.  The ceremony could last for one day or as long as three weeks, depending on the occasion and the wealth of the giver.

A potlatch typically included three important components: a feast, entertainment, and gift giving to the guests.  The entertainment consisted of singing and masked dancing.  The more lavish the gifts, feast, and entertainment, the greater the prestige gained by the giver.  Because masks and costumes were expensive and time-consuming to make, larger and more elaborate masks raised the prestige of the potlatch giver.  The masks themselves represented totemic animals such as the killer whale, raven, beaver, or shark, or else mythical figures and beasts, such as the Komokwa, Dzunukwa or Bukwus. This mask represents the na̱n (bear), a spiritually powerful totemic animal that is considered an ancestor of the Kwakwaka’wakw people.

For more on masks of the coastal peoples of western Canada, see Peter MacNair, Robert Joseph & Bruce Grenville, Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1998) and Edward Malin, A World of Faces: Masks of the Northwest Coast Indians (Portland: Timber Press, 1978).

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Punu Mukudj

TITLE: Punu Mukudj
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Gabon
ETHNICITY: Punu
DESCRIPTION: Mwiri Society Mukudj Mask
CATALOG ID: AFGA006
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Mwiri Society
FUNCTION: Adult Initiation; Funeral; Secret Society; Spirit Invocation
AGE: ca. 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: kaolin clay; pigment

The Punu people of Gabon and Republic of Congo live in small villages, mainly along the Ogowe River Basin. They are a matrilineal people organized into hereditary chiefdoms. Like most of the peoples of central and northwest Africa, they have animistic religious beliefs.  Within every Punu village is the Mwiri Society, a secret men’s organization whose members alone may craft masks. Masks serve many important functions in Punu society, including social control and purification of evil spirits and witchcraft.  The mukudj mask (also called okuyi, mokoi, ukuyi, mokoi or mbwanda) simultaneously represents an ancestor spirit and an idealized woman. The diamond pattern on the forehead and squares on the temples represent the scarification marks common among Punu women and emphasize the symmetry of the face. The mukudj is danced by male members of the Mwiri Society on very tall stilts at births, funerals, initiation ceremonies for adulthood, and other major social events to invoke the approval of ancestor spirits.

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Makonde Lipiko Mask

TITLE: Makonde Lipiko Mask
TYPE: crest mask
GENERAL REGION: Africa
COUNTRY: Mozambique
ETHNICITY: Makonde
DESCRIPTION: Lipiko mask with no hair
CATALOG ID: AFMZ001
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Mapiko
USE: Adult Initiation; Funeral; Spirit Invocation
AGE: ca. 1960s-1970s
MAIN MATERIAL: wood
OTHER MATERIALS: natural pigment

The Makonde people inhabit the bordering region of Tanzania and Mozambique. They are a matrilineal society divided into clans governed by a chief and council. The Makonde are known as some of the most expert mask carvers in Africa, with two kinds of masks prevalent in their society.  This mask, known as a lipiko, is a helmet mask used primarily for the mapiko dance held at adult initiation rituals for boys and girls and at funerals. The masquerader channels the spirit of dead ancestors through the mask.  During initiation, boys and girls are both taught how to make the masks and perform them.  Women perform their initiation away from the males, who never see the masquerade.

This mask came from the Mozambique region of Makonde territory and was danced in the 1960s or 1970s. Originally, this mask had hair shavings attached with beeswax to the depressed and darkened part of the forehead, but this feature was lost over time, beeswax not being an especially durable fixative in hot climates.

For more on the Makonde mapiko ceremony, see Paolo Israel, In Step with the Times: Mapiko Masquerades of Mozambique (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press 2014)

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