An elaborate trading network along the river formerly involved the selling of rights to Ngbe and other associations, including the right to perform their various masquerades. The group selling the rights would perform the masquerade in the village of the buyer group, then return home, leaving their masks and costumes behind. The river trade thus helped to spread related art events and art objects among diverse people over a broad area, though changes in both form and meaning took place as local copies of masks and costumes were made. When the mask is made fresh animal skin is stretched and tacked over the soft wood from which it is carved. After the skin dried, it was stained with pigments made from leaves and bark. Feathers, quills, and other objects would have ornamented the mask in performance. It is presumed that all masks represented ancestors.
This crest from the Raskin Private Collection collection has been through some wear and tear – and you can see where the leather was ripped. Quite amazing!
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Kongo across the Waters, at Princeton University Art Museum.
October 25, 2014 – January 25, 2015
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The ceremony of royal investiture included a tradition where the new king recited all the names of his predecessors. Thus names of all the Kuba kings are known.
Kuba traditions maintain that if the ndop figure becomes damaged, an exact copy is made to replace it.
"Heroic Africans" - the 2011 Exhibit at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art displayed an impressive number of seated ndop statues.
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The game and its various boards attract players, anthropologists and collectors. One of the first publications on the Mancala was by Stewart Cullin in 1894. Most of you are familiar with the name and work of this important anthropologist as the founder of Brooklyn Museums’ African Art Gallery. He suggested that the game has divination at its origin.
Museums throughout the world display African Game Boards. Some are listed below. One of the largest boards reportedly is 6 ft tall held at the Scottish Lodge in Edinburgh. Several institutions organized special exhibits dedicated to Mancala Game Boards, including the 2008 Mancala Exposition at the UN Headquarters.
Please contact these museums in advance to ensure access to their game boards as not all Mancalas are on public display and some may be held in the archives:
Sources:
(1) H.J.R. Murray, A History of Board Games Other Than Chess, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1952.
(2) Stewart Cullin, Mancala, the National Game of Africa. Annual Report of the U.S. National Museum 1894.(4) http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/VirtualExhibits/countcap/pages/omwe.html
]]>As they enter the cult house, each member has to make a special salute: they prostrate on the ground, fists clenched together, left over right, hiding the thumbs (as on the male figure here). The elder kisses the ground three times, announcing "the Mothers breasts are Sweet"
Edan are the among the most fascinating of the Yoruba sculptures - they are the paired cast figures of the Ogboni. Usually joined by a chain at the top, Edan represent the original founding couple. By extension, they represent the community and witnesses to the ancient law. The seated Edan figures here are shown performing ritual acts as directed by their position in the society. Notice the clenched fists, the breasts held, the characteristic crescents on the foreheads, facing in the opposite directions representing duality, complementarity and doubling.
The third person portrayed in this casting might illustrate the expression of "two Ogboni it becomes three"
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The purpose for masks and sculptures is to mediate between the present and the spiritual world. For this reason the hairstyles on masks and statues are usually those worn by the priests of the local orisa cult. Conical raised up - that would be the style.
Babies usually have their heads shaved at the naming ceremony (at 7 or 9 days after birth). With the exception of twins, who are considered sacred and thus their heads are not shaved. Twin boys and girls wear the same coiffures regardless of their sex.
Boys and young men shave off their hair and mustache until old age.
Girls and women wear their hair long and braided. Corn rows of all varieties are common, some quite intricate. Coiffures of unmarried women are not as elaborate as hairstyles of their married counterparts.
By looking at a sculpture can you decipher the status of the man by their hair? Yes. Rich men and princes wore three patches of hair in the front, center and back of the head. Hunters and leaders of the guard wore a braid in the middle of the head, long, hanging to the left side. Often it was placed inside a cloth or a cap. Many Yoruba masks and sculpted heads portray such hair style. In the past, to distinguish them from other men, royal messengers would shave half of their heads.
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Not all masks are made to be worn on the face. Dan carried small masks - masquettes (ma go). They were sewn onto a piece of cloth and kept in a leather pouch and even worn at the back. These masquettes embody protective spirits. Sometimes they are used as a sacred object for oath taking and making sacrifices. They are usually small copies (less than 8") of full-sized masks whose spirit may be contacted by manipulating the the small mask The "passport" masks may also act as witnesses during initiation ceremonies and protect the owner when he is away from home.
Featured item: Dan Passport Mask SKU: #13D8M357
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Have you ever wondered what these were? Is this a mask or a sculpture? How was it used?
It is an emblem of Bansongyi, men's secret association. This headpiece, also called bansongyi, presents a python standing upright. Baga People of Guinea carve these snake headpieces which can be as high as 9 feet.
Bansongyi lives in the sacred forest and emerges when it is time to begin the boys' coming-of-age rites. As receptacle for the most powerful spirit, bansongyi is believed to be the strongest adversary of sorcery and destructive forces that could endanger the well-being of the village. Bansongyi also appears at the funeral celebrations of the most important members of the community. They were held on the shoulders of a dancer.This particular mask is unusual because its coloration resembles the coloration of a real snake.
Featured item: Baga Bansongyi SKU: #G13B11M2501
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