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Yoruba Masks: Gelede, Egungun and Epa, and What Each One Is For
The drums start before you see anything. Then the crowd parts, and a figure comes through covered from head to foot in layered cloth. You cannot see a hand. You cannot see a face. Somebody near you says the ancestor has come home. Nobody laughs. That is the thing outsiders miss about Yoruba masks. They…
African Mask Symbols and Meanings: How to Read a Carved Face
A mask is not a picture of a face. It is a sentence. Every part of it was chosen. The height of the forehead. The shape of the eyes. Whether the mouth is open or shut. If you want to understand African mask symbols and meanings, you have to stop looking at the mask as…
