Mask - Gabon (No reserve price)

The African masks 'of illness' Pende Mbangu (deformed mouth) or Bwala-Bwala illustrate, through their exaggerated features, the patient in an epileptic crisis or the result of facial paralysis caused by witchcraft rituals. The dancer who wears this comic mask is crowned with a hat made of gifuatu plumes from guinea fowl, coucal, or turaco, or of the lumbandu, a crown of leaves. He is also often equipped with a hump on the back, thereby exaggerating the handicapped aspect of the character. This mask of the Pende established in the upper Kwango is distinguished by its bent nose and a deformed mouth. It is divided into contrasting colors. The western Pende live along the banks of the Kwilu, while the eastern Pende settled along the Kasai river downstream from Tshikapa. The influence of neighboring tribes, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba and Salempasu, has left an imprint on their broad sculpture of tribal art. Within this diversity the Mbuya masks, realistic, produced every ten years, serve a festive function, and embody different characters difficult to differentiate without their costume, including the chief fumu or ufumu, the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the clown, tundu, the possessed,