New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Most masks are built to move an audience through performance, through dance, through song. The most feared Suku mask was built to do the opposite. Kakuungu was not supposed to dance at all. Its…
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → “Lulua” is not really the name of one people. It is an umbrella term for a large number of heterogeneous groups who settled near the Lulua River, between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers in…
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Yaka or yakala means “males,” “the strong ones.” Bayaka, the name the roughly 300,000 Yaka people of the southwestern Democratic Republic of the Congo call themselves, means “the strong people.” It is not a…
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Some African masks were inherited with a family name. A Salampasu mask was not one of them. To wear one, a man had to do something first: perform a specific deed, pay in livestock…
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → The Kwele mask is easy to recognize and hard to forget. A pale, heart shaped face. A triangular nose. Eyes closed or nearly closed, like someone deep in thought rather than deep in performance….
West Africa is home to hundreds of distinct mask traditions. This visual guide maps the key regional styles from Senegal to Nigeria and everything in between.
From the Famadihana reburial ceremony of Madagascar to the elaborate Ghanaian fantasy coffins, African funeral traditions celebrate life as much as they mourn death.
The towering plank masks of the Bwa people are among the most visually arresting in African art. This guide explains their origin, symbolism, and ceremony.
The 25th Dynasty saw Nubian pharaohs rule Egypt. Discover the Nubian civilisation that built more pyramids than Egypt and forged an empire of its own.
Carved to represent the idealised beauty of deceased maidens, the Agbogho Mmuo mask is one of Nigeria’s most graceful masquerade traditions.
From the Xhosa ulwaluko to the Maasai enkiama, African coming-of-age traditions are richly varied. This guide surveys the most significant rites of passage.
To understand where African masks come from, you have to let go of the idea that there is a single origin story. Mask making developed independently across thousands of distinct communities over thousands of years, shaped by local belief systems, available materials, and specific social needs. What follows is not a complete history of any…