African Masks | African Tribal Masks

Ekuk means both “protective forest spirit” and “children of beete.” It displays a flat surface and often has a whitened heart-shaped face, a triangular nose, coffee-bean eyes and small or non-existent mouth. This mask, with two large horns, represents the antelope. The faces are usually painted in white kaolin earth, a pigment associated by the Kwele with light and clarity, the two essential factors in the fight against evil.
PRICE: $192.99

The Kwele Bwete association used masks resembling a human face, known as pibibuze, in initiation and funeral ceremonies. This beautiful mask will transform your African Art collection.
PRICE: $159.99

The Marka are a subgroup of the Mande (Soninke), whose settlement region extends from the north of the Bamana to the Senegalese border, where they are called Sarakole. A part of this ethnic group that has settled in Burkina Faso is known as Dafing. They are independent of the Bamana, but show a very strong Bamana influence.
PRICE: $489.99

This type of mask, explicitly depicting a specific person, is exceedingly rare in Africa. These ndoma, which in Baule language means "double", "replica", "equivalence" or "copy", are designed as true portraits of real people living in the village and are given names.
PRICE: $229.99

These black Punu Ikwara masks, which meted out justice, danced only at twilight or at night, on stilts made from musasa, muri-ditenga - 'the tree of the ghosts', which, by all accounts were much shorter than those used by the daytime Okuyi dancers. Punu (and Galwa, Lumbu or Shira) black masks in museums and collections are much rarer then the others, perhaps because of their dangerous and frankly evil nature, which, may have prompted the villagers to conceal them carefully from European collectors (like all objects connected in some way with witchcraft) and, when they had been discovered, to be more reluctant to sell them to travelers than other more banal items.
PRICE: $219.99

PRICE: $164.99

PRICE: $199.99

The okuyi or mukuyi African mask, originating from the Punu in southwest Gabon, represents and idealized female face. Indicated by the scarification on the face area, consisting of nine dots, and according to some, have a sexual connotation. Another sign of female gender is the coiffure.
PRICE: $189.99

The We, whose name means 'men who easily forgive', live in the forests on the western frontier of the Ivory Coast. They are in fact two separate tribes - the Gere and the Wobe - although they share numerous customs and beliefs. Confederations govern the tribes - the largest is the warrior confederation which is led by a military chief, who also acts as a civil authority. The family unit plays an important role in the We social life. Each is led by the patriarch, revered for his wisdom and wealth, who supervises the clans life - he organises weddings, settles conflicts and influences religious life.
PRICE: $129.99

This mask was worn by the diviner, known as nganga diphomba, and was danced at the Khimba initiation ceremony, at funeral ceremonies and for social control. It had the power to unmask individuals responsible for sorcery, or criminal acts.
PRICE: $179.99

In earlier times, new-born twins, or ibeji, as they are called, were believed to be evil, monstrous abnormalities and infanticide was a common practice. However, such beliefs and practices were later superseded and reversed, and by the middle of the 18th century twins came to be seen as a blessing; they were awarded the status of minor deities, called Orishas, and their arrival was viewed as an omen of good fortune for the family. By the 19th century the cult of the Ere Ibeji was firmly established and continues to this day. The death of one or both twins is regarded as a great calamity for the family, one which requires immediate appeasement of the soul of the deceased child.
PRICE: $294.99

Used in the soutern viliages, the most impressive Bwa masks are the plank masks, known as nwatantay. The elders of the Kambi clan in Dossi claim that the plank masks represent flying spirits and are associated with water. These spirits can take the form of insects that mass around muddy pools after early rains, or of larger birds, including owls and ibis. The key to understanding plank mask forms is that these masks are not representational, but embody supernatural forces that act on behalf of the Bwa clans that use the masks.
PRICE: $174.99