Round mask "kifwebe" ·  D. R. Congo, Luba · ID: 3047846

Description

wood, pigments, rest.

A comparable mask, possibly by the same artist, illustrated on the cover of the publication “African Negro Sculpture”, University Museum Bulletin, 1957 (Vol. 21, No. 4).

Such masks were apparently danced at the death of a chief or other eminent person, or when a person assumed an important political title.

One surmises that the masks were performed to mark moments of important social transition and transformation. The etymology of “kifwebe”, “the name of the spirit”, is “to chase away” or “put to flight, death”.

Comparing literature

Roberts, Mary Nooter, Memory, New York 1996, p. 86 f. "African Negro Sculpture", University Museum Bulletin, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1957, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Cover)