This document provides information on masks from several African cultures, including their shapes, materials, purposes and meanings. It describes masks from Liberia, Angola, Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso/Ivory Coast/Mali. The masks served various ritual, social and entertainment functions in their communities, and represented spirits, ancestors, characters or individuals of importance. Their artistic details and performances conveyed symbolic meanings and messages.

1. African
M as ks

2. African C ontine nt

3. Wh at are we looking for?
• Shape and Form- Geometric or Organic. Form
is the three dimensional shape.
• Texture- is the way something feels.
• Color- how many colors did the artists use?
• Materials – what materials did the artist
use?

4. Lib e ria

5. Mask
Dan, Liberia, ca. 19th century
Wood, copper, iron, fiber, 11 1/4 in. (28.6 cm) high
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton
Collection of African Art
1954.28.7
Among the Dan people, it is through a dream that an
ancestor spirit calls upon a man to offer help and
advice. A mask is then commissioned from a carver,
fulfilling the spirit's desire to participate in human
activities in a tangible form and to benefit its human
counterpart. Several categories of Dan masks have
oval faces, slit eyes framed with kaolin, and a small
mouth. This mask with its headband of metal blades
resembles a type of Dan mask that is a powerful law
enforcer of the Go leopard society, though it may
originally have been used as a friendly, joyful mask
type.

6. Insignia masks
Dan/Mano, Liberia, late 19th–early 20th century
Wood, metal, encrustation, 2 1/4 in. (5.7 cm) to 4 in. (10.2 cm) high
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton Collection of African Art
1955.61.8.1, .2, .4, .28, .30
Almost all Dan masks have corresponding miniature masks that serve several purposes. Miniature portraits of their owners, or nature spirits
and ancestors, these tiny masks are carried in the pocket and used as insignia of ritual power. Some are owned by high-ranking male
leaders; some are given to young male initiates as needed. Like full-sized face masks, the miniatures are endowed with spiritual power and
are used to protect against evil spirits. A miniature can be a portable point of contact with the religious community when the owner of a
mask is away from home. Miniature masks can also be used as protective objects; they are anointed with palm oil in times of uncertainty or
danger to invoke the protective power of a spirit represented in a larger mask. They may be buried with the owner at death or bequeathed.

7. Mask (Kaogle)
Dan, Liberia, late 19th–early 20th century
Wood, encrustation, 11 in. (27.9 cm) high
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James M. Osborn for the Linton
Collection of African Art
1959.72.7
Kaogle masks, taking the appearance of a chimpanzee
with exaggerated, cubistic features, are used to provide
rowdy entertainment and to incite young men of the
village to work out their aggressions in dance. The free-
for-all is accompanied by palm wine drinking, a slit
gong orchestra, and singers. The animalistic behavior of
the masked dancer parallels the unpredictable actions
of the ape, thus teaching good behavior by acting out
its inverse. Kaogle's goal is to enrage the audience: at
one time, the masquerade may have even been used to
anger men who were about to go into battle. Adorned
with a cotton wig, bunches of leaves, or short feathers,
the mask is worn with a floor-length gown of raffia and
a mantle of cotton cloth.

8. Mask (Gongoli)
Mende, Sierra Leone/Liberia, late 19th-early 20th
century
Wood, black pigment, red paint, traces of fabric, 19 in.
(48.3 cm) high
Charles B. Benenson Collection
CB529
Ugly!—this is the reaction of the Mende audience when
it sees this mask in performance—and the uglier the
better. The function of this performance is to show the
worst side of human nature: deformed, disheveled,
chaotic, undisciplined, deceptive, and antisocial. The
mask is worn with a hideous costume of dead leaves
and rags. The movements of the character are
disjointed, erratic, awkward, and amusing.

9. Male mask with headdress (Kpakologi)
Loma/Kpelle, Liberia/Guinea, early 20th century
Wood, feathers, textile, hide, cloth, fiber, pigment,
metal, 77 in. (195.6 cm) high
Charles B. Benenson Collection
CB734
From the Loma or Kpelle people of the border of
Liberia and Guinea, this mask with headdress and
complete costume presents a conundrum. The
costume of feathers is a type used by the Onil 駡 gi
(Bird Mask) dancers among the Loma, who wear no
mask but paint their faces white. The white mask is
similar to a Loma mask, painted black, called
Kpakologi, which has an articulated jaw and a bundle
of feathers at the top, but whose costume is made of
raffia and cloth. Although we cannot be sure the mask
belongs to this costume, we do know how it would
have been used. In performance, such large wooden
masks are customarily worn on the forehead rather
than on the face and, when worn horizontally,
resemble a crocodile head with bared teeth. When the
masked dancer leans over and faces the audience,
however, the mask is seen as a human face.

10. Angola

11. Mask representing a young
woman (Mwana Pwo)
Chokwe, Angola, 20th century
Wood, fiber, red pigment, 10 in.
(25.4 cm) high
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. James M.
Osborn for the Linton Collection of
African Art
1954.28.27
The Mwana Pwo mask is said to
bestow luckupon people who witness
its dance. Decorative scarification
designs appear on the mask's
forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin.
The mask is coiffed in the popular
Kambu ja tota style: short plaits
wrapped in balls of red clay. The
costume is a body sheath of netted
fiber. Carvers often model their Pwo
masks on particular young women's
faces. The spiritual representation,
however, is an ancestral woman.
Pwo perform from village to village.
In some areas, the acrobatic dance
is performed on a tightrope twenty-
five feet high.

12. C ongo

13. Mask (Mbuya)
Pende, Congo (Kinshasa), late 19th–
early 20th century
Wood, fiber, 15 in. (38.1 cm) high
Gift of Mr. & Mrs. William B. Jaffe
1969.106
This mask would have been danced by
a man, but its harmonious, feminine
features suggest that it may be a
gabuku mbuya, a caricature of an vain
young woman. Most mbuya depict a
generalized village character or a
prominent member of the community
(such as a ruler or a palm wine
tapster). It is usually impossible,
however, to determine the identity of a
Pende mask without seeing it in
performance, as mask forms are very
similar, but movement is specific to
each masquerade type.

14. C ote
D ’ivoire

15. Mask (Tanka Gle)
Dan, Liberia/Ivory Coast, late 19th–early 20th
century
Wood, fiber, nail, 10 3/4 in. (27.3 cm) high
Director's Discretionary Fund
1982.71
Only by seeing the dance itself is it possible to
identify definitively the function of most Dan masks.
Each represents a spirit revealed to its owner in a
dream and then carved. This mask seems to be the
Tanka Gle, which performs at the visit of dignitaries
and sings and recites proverbs asking God's blessing
on the people. Tanka Gle are entertainment
masquerades, known to be gentle, good-humored,
and amusing. Tanka Gle masqueraders usually wear
leg rattles and fiber or cloth costumes. They carry
calabash rattles and perform beautiful dances, short
skits, and songs. This mask, with forehead and
temples adorned with a fiber coiffure, once had teeth
that were probably made from aluminum. The holes
around the chin of the mask indicate that it may
originally have had a beard or a fringe attached.

16. Portrait mask
Baule, Ivory Coast, early 20th century
Wood, metal, 12 in. (30.5 cm) high
Purchased with a gift from Steven M.
Kossak, B.A. 1972, and with the
Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., B.A. 1913, Fund
1996.13.1
At first glance this mask seems to be
symmetrical, but a closer look reveals
that one eye is slightly higher than the
other. Such subtle and balanced
asymmetry is characteristic of Baule
art. The mask is a portrait of a woman
who was probably a very skilled dancer
in her village. The woman herself or
one of her female descendants would
have accompanied the mask when it
was performed.

17. Mask (Kponyugu)
Senufo, Burkina Faso/Ivory Coast/Mali, late
19th–early 20th century
Wood, pigment, metal, 35 in. (88.9 cm) high
Charles B. Benenson Collection
CB282
The Kponyugu performer appears in rituals of
the Poro association, especially at funerals.
This mask is in the form of an animal head
with large, open mouth and spiked teeth, the
flat horns of the buffalo, the huge jaw of the
crocodile or warthog, the ears of the hyena,
and, on top of the head, a chameleon. Each of
these animals plays a role in the Senufo
stories of the creation of the world. The owner
of the mask may use it in conducting an
initiation of elder men into the senior level.
The masked dancers also may perform at the
funeral of deceased male and female Poro
members.