Helmet mask with four faces "ngontang" · Gabon, Fang · ID: 3036498
Description
wood, kaolin, black paint, cylindrical corpus, carved with two larger and two smaller faces, homogeneous formed, striking details: brows formed by drilled holes, arrow-shaped incisions at the corners of the eyes, pierced around the rim (grass fibre cuff missing), cracks (continuous with one face), small traces of insect caused damage (coiffure, inside), metal base;
“ngnotang” literally means “the young white woman”. The mask always shows feminine features covered with white chalk. Among the Fang, white is the colour of ancestral spirits.
The mask type “ngontang” was first documented between 1920 and 1930. Performances may relate to a range of different occasions from a family’s commemoration of the life of a deceased member or its announcement of a birth to an important public gathering. In some Fang communities the mask appears to have been used in ritual dances related to the “bieri” ancestral cult, especially for detecting sorcerers.
Comparing literature
Bassani, Ezio u.a., The Power of Form, Mailand 2002, p. 120 f. Siroto, Leon, East of the Atlantic West of the Congo, San Francisco 1995, ill. 2