Artwork Page for Mask (Emangungu)

Details / Information for Mask (Emangungu)

Mask (Emangungu)

possibly early 1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bembe-style maker

Medium
Wood, kaolin, colorant, and iron
Measurements
Overall: 46 cm (18 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund 2006.116
Public Domain
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Location
108A African
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Did You Know?

White kaolin clay highlights the eyes of this carved wooden mask.

Description

Rare anthropo-zoomorphic plank masks were once used by Bembe people in circumcision rites called butende. Recently initiated boys living in seclusion in the forest wore them with a bark-and-banana-leaf costume, disguising themselves to beg for food in the village. The sculpture’s short projections above the forehead are identified as an owl’s tufts. The two pairs of eyes could refer to divination. The rites associated with this mask had waned by the mid-1960s.
A dark wood mask features two stacked faces on a tall, rectangular plank. The upper face contains two large, white circular eye orbits with narrow horizontal slits and a thin nose. Below, two smaller white circles feature similar slit eyes. Red and white triangular patterns border the vertical sides. Two columns of diamonds descend from the lower eyes toward a horizontal band of triangles carved at the bottom.

Mask (Emangungu)

possibly early 1900s

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Bembe-style maker

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