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A Songye kifwebe mask from the Democratic Republic of Congo,…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Wellington
Date:
5-Oct-2022
Lot No.
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Description:
A Songye kifwebe mask from the Democratic Republic of Congo, wood, raffia, vegetable fibre, feathers, animal hair, and natural pigments. The high sagittal crest denoting it as a male mask. For the people of the Eastern Songye region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, such masks have been danced from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries. The dances have been continually reinvented for more than a century, with the masks used in both secular and magical-religious performances. Male masks were initially related to the control of society and acted to identify criminals, to reinforce the harmony of a village through magic and witchcraft. The masks and their dancers were thus an important aspect of life in Central Africa. More recently, with the weakening centralisation of villages, the menacing and magical function of the masks has been diluted, leaving them associated more with traditional rituals such as with the death of a chief, security affairs, the recognition of bad spirits, or to be used during an epidemic or famine. Among the Eastern Songye, the crest of the mask plays an important role. Its size represents the degree of authority. This mask, with its high curving crest, represents the greatest authority, the masters that occupy the highest ranks of the brotherhood of kifwebe dancers, who serve as agents of the political elite of Songye society. The mask shows numerous, distinct signs of age and ritual use. The crest has been repaired in the village, as indicated by the bindings that connect and stabilise the repaired sections. The fibrous ropes that attach the woven costume to the back of the mask show abrasions due to repeated friction with the wooden holes, as the mask was danced and the costume pulled on the fibres. Much of the white and black pigments have been lost through age. Cracks in the wood have been filled using rudimentary village materials, but have then opened up more as the cracks expanded over time. 64 cm height
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified