African Masks

African Continent

What are we looking for?

• Shape and Form- Geometric or Organic. Form is the three dimensional shape.

• Texture- is the way something feels. • Color- how many colors did the artists

use?• Materials – what materials did the artist

use?

Liberia

Mask Dan, Liberia, ca. 19th century Wood, copper, iron, fiber, 11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm) highGift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton Collection of African Art 1954.28.7

Among the Dan people, it is through a dream that an ancestor spirit calls upon a man to offer help and advice. A mask is then commissioned from a carver, fulfilling the spirit's desire to participate in human activities in a tangible form and to benefit its human counterpart. Several categories of Dan masks have oval faces, slit eyes framed with kaolin, and a small mouth. This mask with its headband of metal blades resembles a type of Dan mask that is a powerful law enforcer of the Go leopard society, though it may originally have been used as a friendly, joyful mask type.

Insignia masks Dan/Mano, Liberia, late 19th–early 20th centuryWood, metal, encrustation, 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm) to 4 in. (10.2 cm) highGift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton Collection of African Art 1955.61.8.1, .2, .4, .28, .30

Almost all Dan masks have corresponding miniature masks that serve several purposes. Miniature portraits of their owners, or nature spirits and ancestors, these tiny masks are carried in the pocket and used as insignia of ritual power. Some are owned by high-ranking male leaders; some are given to young male initiates as needed. Like full-sized face masks, the miniatures are endowed with spiritual power and are used to protect against evil spirits. A miniature can be a portable point of contact with the religious community when the owner of a mask is away from home. Miniature masks can also be used as protective objects; they are anointed with palm oil in times of uncertainty or danger to invoke the protective power of a spirit represented in a larger mask. They may be buried with the owner at death or bequeathed.

Mask (Kaogle) Dan, Liberia, late 19th–early 20th centuryWood, encrustation, 11 in. (27.9 cm) highGift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton Collection of African Art 1959.72.7

Kaogle masks, taking the appearance of a chimpanzee with exaggerated, cubistic features, are used to provide rowdy entertainment and to incite young men of the village to work out their aggressions in dance. The free-for-all is accompanied by palm wine drinking, a slit gong orchestra, and singers. The animalistic behavior of the masked dancer parallels the unpredictable actions of the ape, thus teaching good behavior by acting out its inverse. Kaogle's goal is to enrage the audience: at one time, the masquerade may have even been used to anger men who were about to go into battle. Adorned with a cotton wig, bunches of leaves, or short feathers, the mask is worn with a floor-length gown of raffia and a mantle of cotton cloth.  

Mask (Gongoli)Mende, Sierra Leone/Liberia, late 19th-early 20th centuryWood, black pigment, red paint, traces of fabric, 19 in. (48.3 cm) high Charles B. Benenson CollectionCB529

Ugly!—this is the reaction of the Mende audience when it sees this mask in performance—and the uglier the better. The function of this performance is to show the worst side of human nature: deformed, disheveled, chaotic, undisciplined, deceptive, and antisocial. The mask is worn with a hideous costume of dead leaves and rags. The movements of the character are disjointed, erratic, awkward, and amusing.  

Male mask with headdress (Kpakologi)

Loma/Kpelle, Liberia/Guinea, early 20th centuryWood, feathers, textile, hide, cloth, fiber, pigment, metal, 77 in. (195.6 cm) high Charles B. Benenson CollectionCB734

From the Loma or Kpelle people of the border of Liberia and Guinea, this mask with headdress and complete costume presents a conundrum. The costume of feathers is a type used by the Onil駡 gi (Bird Mask) dancers among the Loma, who wear no mask but paint their faces white. The white mask is similar to a Loma mask, painted black, called Kpakologi, which has an articulated jaw and a bundle of feathers at the top, but whose costume is made of raffia and cloth. Although we cannot be sure the mask belongs to this costume, we do know how it would have been used. In performance, such large wooden masks are customarily worn on the forehead rather than on the face and, when worn horizontally, resemble a crocodile head with bared teeth. When the masked dancer leans over and faces the audience, however, the mask is seen as a human face.

Angola

                                    

            

Mask representing a young woman (Mwana Pwo) Chokwe, Angola, 20th century Wood, fiber, red pigment, 10 in. (25.4 cm) highGift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton Collection of African Art1954.28.27

The Mwana Pwo mask is said to bestow luckupon people who witness its dance. Decorative scarification designs appear on the mask's forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. The mask is coiffed in the popular Kambu ja tota style: short plaits wrapped in balls of red clay. The costume is a body sheath of netted fiber. Carvers often model their Pwo masks on particular young women's faces. The spiritual representation, however, is an ancestral woman. Pwo perform from village to village. In some areas, the acrobatic dance is performed on a tightrope twenty-five feet high.  

Congo

Mask (Mbuya) Pende, Congo (Kinshasa), late 19th–early 20th century Wood, fiber, 15 in. (38.1 cm) highGift of Mr. & Mrs. William B. Jaffe 1969.106

This mask would have been danced by a man, but its harmonious, feminine features suggest that it may be a gabuku mbuya, a caricature of an vain young woman. Most mbuya depict a generalized village character or a prominent member of the community (such as a ruler or a palm wine tapster). It is usually impossible, however, to determine the identity of a Pende mask without seeing it in performance, as mask forms are very similar, but movement is specific to each masquerade type.  

Cote D’ivoire

Mask (Tanka Gle)Dan, Liberia/Ivory Coast, late 19th–early 20th centuryWood, fiber, nail, 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm) highDirector's Discretionary Fund1982.71

Only by seeing the dance itself is it possible to identify definitively the function of most Dan masks. Each represents a spirit revealed to its owner in a dream and then carved. This mask seems to be the Tanka Gle, which performs at the visit of dignitaries and sings and recites proverbs asking God's blessing on the people. Tanka Gle are entertainment masquerades, known to be gentle, good-humored, and amusing. Tanka Gle masqueraders usually wear leg rattles and fiber or cloth costumes. They carry calabash rattles and perform beautiful dances, short skits, and songs. This mask, with forehead and temples adorned with a fiber coiffure, once had teeth that were probably made from aluminum. The holes around the chin of the mask indicate that it may originally have had a beard or a fringe attached.  

Portrait mask Baule, Ivory Coast, early 20th century Wood, metal, 12 in. (30.5 cm) high Purchased with a gift from Steven M. Kossak, B.A. 1972, and with the Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., B.A. 1913, Fund1996.13.1

At first glance this mask seems to be symmetrical, but a closer look reveals that one eye is slightly higher than the other. Such subtle and balanced asymmetry is characteristic of Baule art. The mask is a portrait of a woman who was probably a very skilled dancer in her village. The woman herself or one of her female descendants would have accompanied the mask when it was performed.  

Mask (Kponyugu) Senufo, Burkina Faso/Ivory Coast/Mali, late 19th–early 20th century Wood, pigment, metal, 35 in. (88.9 cm) highCharles B. Benenson CollectionCB282

The Kponyugu performer appears in rituals of the Poro association, especially at funerals. This mask is in the form of an animal head with large, open mouth and spiked teeth, the flat horns of the buffalo, the huge jaw of the crocodile or warthog, the ears of the hyena, and, on top of the head, a chameleon. Each of these animals plays a role in the Senufo stories of the creation of the world. The owner of the mask may use it in conducting an initiation of elder men into the senior level. The masked dancers also may perform at the funeral of deceased male and female Poro members.