Kumpo Dance Explained | The Hidden Intelligence and Spirituality Behind Kumpo Dance Movements

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 tie their objects to ancestors, initiation, or entertainment. The Mambila, farmers and stockbreeders straddling the Cameroon–Nigeria border, built theirs around something more specific: an association called suaga,…

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 carry names that describe what a group does or where it lives. The We of Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia carry a name that describes something closer to…

New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Most carved figures documented in this book preserve, at minimum, the basic proportions of a body: head, torso, limbs, even when stylized heavily. The Goma of the northwestern end of Lake Tanganyika carved four-legged…

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.