African Mask Making | History, Meaning and Secrets of Traditional African Mask Exposed

New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Many masking traditions documented in this book carry ritual, initiatory, or entertainment functions. The Mau, northern neighbors of the Dan in Côte d’Ivoire, carve one whose purpose is closer to a courtroom than a…

New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Most ancestor figures in this book commemorate someone worth remembering fondly, a chief, a founder, a mother of the lineage. The Mbole carved figures meant to commemorate the opposite kind of person entirely: men…

New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Most masks documented in this book serve either war or peace, aggression or reconciliation, rarely both at once. The Bete of Côte d’Ivoire, roughly 600,000 people living between the Akan groups to the east…

New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Not every masking tradition on this site comes with a settled explanation. The Mbagani are a useful reminder of that, and being honest about it is more useful than pretending otherwise. Their masks are…