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Kuba Kingdom: Art, Masks, and the Legacy of Central Africa’s Greatest Empire
The Kuba Kingdom of present-day DRC produced extraordinary art and governance. Explore their mask traditions and historical impact.
Africa is not one mask tradition. It is hundreds of them, each tied to a specific people, a specific ceremony, and a specific set of beliefs about what a mask does when it is worn. Treating African masks as a single style flattens traditions that have almost nothing in common except the continent they come…
Carved to represent the idealised beauty of deceased maidens, the Agbogho Mmuo mask is one of Nigeria’s most graceful masquerade traditions.
The Kuba Kingdom of present-day DRC produced extraordinary art and governance. Explore their mask traditions and historical impact.
The Egungun represents the collective ancestors made visible among the living.
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Several styles documented in this book develop in close dialogue with a more famous neighbor, echoing its structure while marking out a clear identity of their own. The Lwena, spread across Angola, the Democratic…