Masque casque avec coiffure prononcée
Werner Zintl, Worms, Germany (2001)
Description
wood, painted in white, black colour, blue pigment remains,
The Kwese live in the south-western part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Through migration and close contact with each other, the ethnic groups living here, especially the Mbala, Kwese and Western Pende, have strongly influenced each other in their artistic styles.
All of these communities followed the “mukanda” circumcision rite, which marked the passage from a boy’s childhood to adulthood. Baeke attributes the use of helmet-shaped masks for the “mukanda” dances to the Suku, who live south of these three groups. Presumably, these masks appeared during the closing ceremony of the ritual, which marked the end of the young initiates’ seclusion in the wilderness and their return to civilised village life.
A very similar mask was auctioned at Zemanek-Münster on November 15, 2008 as lot 435 (cf. AHDRC 0017491). Both masks show strikingly wide, narrow-slit eyes in a large, almost heart-shaped face. The noses are short with flat backs, the mouth only indicated.