Old African Mende Sowei Sande Society Mask – Sierra Leone.

Antique African Mende Sowei Sande Society Mask from Sierra Leone.Covered with animal skin, traces of hair still visible.Height; 45 cm.This Mende helm mask is from the first half of the 20th century and with a certificate of authenticity.Such masks are worn by initiated Sande women at performances celebrating the completion of the young initiates' training period. The masks are finely cut to convey admired feminine features: an elaborate hairstyle, a smooth, broad forehead, narrowly slit eyes, a small, controlled mouth, and a sensually ringed neck.This old specimen has a turtle on the head.The Mende culture is known in African art for its beautiful initiation masks and more specifically those of the Sande initiation society. These masks are relatively rare in Africa and are made by men and worn by women.Beautiful polychromy.Mende is the name of an ethnic group living in Serra Leone, Liberia and Guinea-Bissau. They number approximately 700,000 and their oral tradition indicates that they came from Sudan between the 2nd and 16th centuries. The Mende people settled in their current habitat, spread across northwestern Liberia and southwestern Sierra Leone, at the end of the 18th century, after long resisting the hegemony of the kingdom's coastal areas ruled by... lees verder bij Catawiki