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Mende Sowei Mask: The Female Helmet Mask of Sierra Leone
Uniquely, the Sowei mask is carved by men but worn by women — senior members of the Sande society. Learn why this makes it exceptional in African art.
Bamana Chi Wara Mask: The Antelope Headdress of Mali
The Chi Wara headdress is among the most iconic forms in African art. Learn about the agricultural ceremonies it accompanies and the Bamana people who create it.
Stories Shape the World, and Africans Must Tell Their Own Stories.
Stories shape the world, and you probably already know this. Behind every great movement led by people was a proportionately great story. The very famous proverb by one of Africa’s best storytellers, Chinua Achebe, explains this perfectly. He said that ‘until the lion learns how to write, the tale of the hunt will always glorify…
Grebo Masks: The War Face Built to Terrify, and the Chief Who Ruled Alone
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Nearly every people documented in this book’s Liberian section organizes at least part of village authority through the Poro society, the region’s dominant men’s institution. The Grebo, a little-known ethnic group of eastern Liberia’s…
Teke Masks: A Figure Carved for One Newborn Could Be Sold to Protect Another
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Several masking and figure-carving traditions documented in this book treat a finished sculpture as a fixed, permanent object. Teke fetish figures, spread across both Congo Republics and Gabon, worked differently: a figure’s power was…
Nkanu Masks: Initiates Learn the Art by Watching It Get Made
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Several masking traditions documented in this book keep their objects hidden from the very initiates the rites are meant to transform, revealing finished masks only at a climactic unveiling. The Nkanu of Angola and…