Mask - Gabon (No reserve price)

Mukuyi Mask - Punu / Pounou - Gabon - African Masks
Gabonese masks are often named after the rites in which they participate (Bwiti, bwété, byéri, ngil, emboli, okuyi, mukuyi...)

They come into play in every vital aspect for the community: rites of a social nature (mourning, funerals, illnesses), rites of purification or fertility (birth, adolescence, virginity), rites of reconciliation and justice (to restore the authority of the chief, harmony within families, or to resolve intergenerational conflicts), or finally rites of protection (which aim more specifically to attract the good graces of ancestors or spirits...)

The Mukuyi masks, commonly called “white masks,” are coated with kaolin which in former times was mixed with pulverized human bone powder. This ritual white pigment, still in use throughout equatorial Africa, is called Pfemba.

As a sign of communication with the supernatural world, the white clay earth is used by both men and women, notably during Bwiti rites.

The nine frontal cheloid diamonds represent the founding myths of the Punu, the central point representing the creator spirit.