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….