Round mask "kifwebe", around 1910/20

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Description

light wood, blackish brown patina, drilled eye holes, covered with grooves in concentrical semi circles symmetrically arranged on both face halves, slightly dam., minor missing parts and scratches, abrasion of paint, traces of old age;
such masks were performed in funerals of important persons and during other rites of transition and transformation. The etymology of “kifwebe” , the name of a spirit, is to chase away, or put to flight, death.

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Comparing literature

Volper, Julien, Autour de Songye, Montreuil 2012, p. 108, ill. 45 Roberts, Mary Nooter, Memory, New York 1996, p. 87, ill. 32

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