Masque facial féminin "okuyi"

Description

wood, facial plane whitened with white earth “pemba” (darkened), brown patina, black paint, slightly asymmetrical facial shape, prominent sickle-shaped see slits underneath delicate arching brows, gently curved nose bridge, small mouth with thin lips, asymmetrical hairdo with disc-shaped middle part and tapered side lobes, slightly dam., rep. abrasion of paint, small missing part backside at the rim.
The “okuyi” or “mukudji” masks are the wooden image of a beautiful deceased girl. The white faces suggesting death masks, not only by their colour, but by their nearly closed eyes with narrow slits as well. The mask especially performed during mourning rites. The masker was entirely hidden under his costume of fibre and cloth with the cane fly-swat “mwandzu” in his hand. The dancers appeared on high stilts and spoke with ghostly voices, generated by a secret instrument consisting of a small gourd.
The masks belonged to the male “mwiri” secret society. According to Perrois, they played an emblematic role during public hearings and, less obstrusively, in the boys inititation. The mask was a powerful policing instrument for keeping the women and children in a subordinate, obedient position. For years it preserved the customs and laws of all these groups in South Gabun, keeping them intact until the arrival of the missionaries in the late 19th century.
In the old days, nobody was supposed to know, who the dancer of “okuyi” was. According to old sources secrecy was required because of the accidents that occured during the dance. When a dancer was unlucky enough to fall from his stilts, which were two or even four metres high, his assistants quickly carried him away into the forest. If he died, his body was left at the foot of a palm tree so it would look like an accident, and the dancer was replaced by another initiate. In this way nobody knew that a different person was dancing. It was always the same mysterious “okuyi”, because the “okuyi” obviously could not die.
A great dancer of “okuyi” once reported that to be able to dance on stilts you needed to have your “eyes pierced” by a substance taken from plants in the forest, “mukemu” during initiation. You were then able to detect all the dangers and see the dead in the other world. The only ones who could dance were those with “four eyes” who had access to the invisible world.
Originally the “okuyi” masks were attributed to the Mpongwe, their origins was later searched for in the Chaillu Mountains. There was even the hypothesis of an Asian influence (because of their similarity with the “no” masks). Perrois suggested that the most important impulse for the culture of the Punu/Lumbo came from the Loango Kingdom, especially from the Vili and that the idealized naturalism of their masks has developed from the well-known Kongo carving style. The origin of the “okuyi” mask is still obscure and will probably remain so in the future, because in many regions the cult has long disappeared.
The “mukudyi” festivities, which are now sports events as much as cultural perfomances, with “champion” acrobats and sometimes organized competitions, have over the years lost their original function to become almost folkloric exhitbitions of entertainment and recreation.

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AHDRC: 0146578