Female mask with lip plug "ndiumu"

Description

wood, brown and black paint, scarification marks in wax, lip plug “pelele”, pinfeather teeth, nice detail: long eyelashes made from real heair, old collection label “L.1/6 Makonde Maske Krämer” and inscription at the back “L.1/6. Makonde A. Krämer”, min. dam., slight traces of abrasion;
face masks of the Makonde mostly represented women at which a characteristic for such female masks was a distinctly protruding disc, situated in the upper lip. The general denomination for this disc was “pelele”. The largest discs were only allowed for women who had given birth to at least seven children.

Comparing literature