Helmet mask with four faces "ngontang" ·  Gabon, Fang · ID: 3052279

Description

wood, pigments, 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

Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Das Zweite Gesicht, Genf, München, New York 1997, ill. 67