The Punu people in Gabon wear the Okuyi or Mukudji mask that means Female mask. The female mask represents feminine beauty. It has elegant coiffure, rounded forehead, arched eyebrows, and almond shaped eyebrows, narrow face, small chin and a sculptured line that represents a chain of jewelry. It is also made of wood and pigment. Only the men that have obtained the power from the spirits can perform their spectacular dance on six-foot tall stilts. This mask represents the feminine beauty that for the Punu people, feminine beauty is associated with the whiteness of the spirit world. (Caleb) Some masks represent nice things like feminine beauty and other masks represent not very nice thing like death, but they both represent things that are very important in these African tribes.
The Mwana Rwo mask from the Chockwe people in Zaire and Angola has a shape of a deceased person. It has sunken eyes, gaunt face and tears that represent the painful experience of the loss through death; it is made of wood and pigment. Dancers perform in the villages during the initiation period, when newly circumcised boys are seduded for instruction in the initiation lodges. The performance is supposed to bring fertility to the women. It also teaches good manners to the spectators. This performance reminds the boys in the initiation ceremony that death is part of the initiation experience of death and rebirth; it also idealizes the feminine values. (Caleb) Initiation ceremonies are very important in some African tribes so these tribes make masks for the ceremonies; masks are used only for important things. The Songye people think they are partly human, animal and spiritual so their masks look like that.
The Kitwebe mask from the Songye people in Zaire has an abstract face. The Songye people think they are partly human, animal and spiritual; so their masks are like that. The mask has powerful features that are like parts of some animals. The eye slits represent the “holes of termites” and the “swelling of sorcerers”. The chin represents the snout of a crocodile. This mask has a long pointed mouth that represents the beak of a bird and the “flame of a sorcerer”. The incised grooves represent the dark and light stripes of dangerous animals. It has raffia fibers on the holes in the chin that represents the mane of a lion. The female mask has white that symbolizes peace, beauty, goodness, wisdom and reproduction. The male mask was red, white and black. The female dancing occurs at regular performances at lunar ceremonies and funerals and is supposed to activate the benevolent spirits that engender many children. The supernatural, mystical and ancestral forces from which the Kitwebe members obtain their powers of sorcery, and use them in a service of political leaders to maintain there position and control. (Caleb) The Kitwebe mask is used for many things like politics, culture and religion. It is also used for witchcraft like the next masks that is from a tribe in Congo.
This is a mask from a tribe in Congo. The mask is made and used by wizards. It is used for good luck; conserve their health and defense from other people’s spells. The form of this mask is an exact ordinary piece of wood sculpts that represents a man, women or sometimes animals. Inside the mask they’re a sack of talismans that produces the desired power. The sack with talismans is used to induce the spirit to live in it and on that way be on the domain a particular wizard. People from Congo make dances with masks, they are very common in Congo and they are used for medicine and for a successful hunt. There is a mask in the lower part of Congo that with every benefit received they put a nail. This mask is made in a shape of a house. (Costumbres Exoticas, pg.272-74) This tribe in Congo uses the mask for witchcraft and the Kuba people use their mask for initiation rites.
The Muentai mask from the Kuba people in Democratic Republic of the Congo performs initiation rites for boys. The main dancers wear a helmet mask and mashamwooy mask. The mashamwooy mask represents royalty. A man of a royalty descent can only wear this mask (Eliot, Encarta 99). This mask is used for initiation rites like the mask in Sandi where they use all aspects of feminine beauty.
There is a mask in Sandi, Sierra Leone; a young Mede girl in the Sande society wears this Bandu. The Sande society is responsible for the education of the Mende women. This type of masks is worn during the initiation ceremony. It is made with a polished wood. It represents the desirable aspects of female beauty (Sassonian /Art Resorce, Encarta 98). The Sandi society uses the mask for religious purposes. Other societies from West and Central Africa use their masks for cultural purposes.
Masks are meant to be seen in action. ¨The most widely imaginative of all African sculpture, their mysterious, tortured and terrifying lines expressed the supernatural forces¨(World Encyclopedia, 96). Some types of masks are worn during rites, as well as ceremonies of the secret societies in West and Central Africa. These societies varied in nature from mutual assistance, dancers almost always accompanied funerals, festivals and other important occasions with masks. The quality of much of this dancing came from the wearer’s belief in spirits represented by the masks strange forces, often into deep trances and danced for hours without stopping. (World Encyclopedia, 96)
Most of the African tribes use masks and they only use them for important things like religious ceremonies, politics and witchcraft. Each tribe has masks for what they need or think is important. Some masks are not only used for one purpose, there can be one mask used for politics, religion and culture. Masks are an important part of African cultures.
