Mask - Congo (No reserve price)

Lega Mask

White clay forms film-like residues on this Lega tribal mask whose forehead bears perforations. This mask was intended to indicate the rank its wearer had attained in Bwami, a learning society made up of different grades. The wives whose husband had reached the third level, that of ngandu, were then allowed to participate in the various initiation stages of the society. Satin gray-brown patina, light residues of kaolin.

Within the Lega, Bwami—the Society open to men and women—organized social and political life. There were up to seven levels of initiation, each associated with emblems. Following their exodus from Uganda in the seventeenth century, the Lega settled on the western bank of the Lualaba River.