Kumpo Dance Explained | The Hidden Intelligence and Spirituality Behind Kumpo Dance Movements
Watch on the SEVICS Africa channel: Exposing the Secrets of the Kumpo Masked Dance
Watch on the SEVICS Africa channel: Exposing the Secrets of the Kumpo Masked Dance
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Several court traditions documented in this book concentrate their visual identity in a single royal emblem, a specific object or symbol reserved for the throne. The Mangbetu, who relocated their kingdom to the northeastern…
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → Owning an African mask outside its place of origin is not inherently wrong—but it does come with responsibility. African masks were created within specific cultural systems. When they leave those systems, their meaning does…
The Chi Wara headdress is among the most iconic forms in African art. Learn about the agricultural ceremonies it accompanies and the Bamana people who create it.
From my book, Within Carved Lines What is the mask for? I grew up knowing what masquerade means, and now I watch the objects of that tradition sell for sums that could transform the villages they came from. The mask was made to hold a community together, to call the ancestors back, to teach the…
The catalogue photograph is perfect. Soft studio light. A dark background. A face that is half human and half chimpanzee, with a wide crescent mouth stretched almost from ear to ear. Underneath, a short paragraph, an estimate, and a list of previous owners. What you do not see is the funeral. The Hemba So’o mask…
Not the same recycled eight sentences. Twenty specific, checkable facts about African masks, from bite bar wear to what Britain took in 1897.