Mask "deangle" with female facial features ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Dan · ID: 3038968

Description

wood, matt brown patina, forehead ridge, horizontal deepened eye zone with narrow see slits, accentuated by kaolin, the corners of the mouth drawn down, inset with metal teeth, drilled holes in pairs above forehead and temples (for attachment of ornament from fabric/beads), remains of cord, sacrificial traces, slightly dam. (nosetip, mouth), abrasion of paint, metal base;
the “dean” mask characters belong to the circumcision camps (“mbon”) of young boys and girls, which are always situated in the holy forest nearby the village. The camp is protected by the invisible forest ghost “nana”, who appoints the “deangle” mask characters. They act as mediator between camp and village and they are responsible for food and protection of the initiates. They neither sing nor dance and they are not accompanied by musicians, but they joke with the women and ask them to send plenty of food to the camp. The mask figure wears a high tapering conical headdress of red fabric and is dressed with a tippet and abundant grass fibre skirt, holding cows tails as whisks in both hands.

Comparing literature

Fischer, Eberhard & Lorenz Homberger, Afrikanische Meister, Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 2014, p. 118, ill. 142