This mask isn't available anymore but you can see an available one at Ngeende
Kuba Mask click on image
The new owner asked to remove images from the website from the one originally
on this page. The textile is clearly the older type from before 1930, also the
inside of the mask shows clear signs of aging.
provenance (from the who's who):
Walscharts,
Jos (Sometimes written: Walschaerts) (?-1982)
Coll./dealer, Antwerp-Belgium. Taxidermist. Belgians living in Congo
contacted him to stuff animals they had shot. These contacts allowed him to
acquire major objects. Objects
exhibited: Antwerpse propagandawerken 1937, Kongo-kunst tentoonstelling,
Stadsfeestzaal, Antwerpen, 24 December 1937 – 16 January 1938. In Olbrechts,
Plastiek van Kongo, Antwerpen 1946
& in expo: Art d'Afrique dans les collections Belges, MRAC-Tervuren
29 June/30 October, 1963.
H: 37 cm, 14.6 inch
light brown wood, polychrome paint, of oval hollowed form, narrow slit,
bean-shaped eyes flanking a small nose, the nose bridge accentuated by a string
of cowrie snails, a diamond-shaped mouth below, the whole facial plane
decorated by polychrome geometrical patterns, supplemented by a raffia bonnet
embroidered with cowrie snails and glass beads, min. dam., slight signs of
abrasion, on base.
"Ngaady a Mwaash" represents the sister and wife of "woot",
the progenitor of the Bushong. It is one of the three most important mask
figures of the Bushong, belonged to the royal family and was used for public
ceremonies or during initiation rites for young boys.
some old images
Masked
Kuba Ceremonial Figure
A Kuba man dressed in an elaborate ceremonial costume and mask for a
dance. The mask represents a deity, Ngady Amwaash.
The Kuba tribe, which has since become extinct, lived between the Sankuru and
Lulua Rivers in the Belgian Congo, which later became Zaire.
photo ca 1950: © Otto Lang/COR BIS
According to Jan Vansina in the The
Grove Dictionary of Art "Kuba: Kingdom located between the Kasai,
Sankuru and Lulua rivers in the region of West Kasai, Zaïre. The kingdom was
multi-ethnic, with the Bushong ruling over a number of other ethnic groups:
Ngende, Bulang, Pyang, Pyang Ibaam, Kayuweng, Kaam, Bieng (also inhabiting a
chiefdom to the south), Kel, Ngongo, Ngombe, Maluk, Mbengi, Shoowa (Shobwa),
Iding, Kete, Coofa and Cwa. In a strict sense, ‘Kuba art’ refers to the arts
of the Kuba kingdom; there is no relationship between style and ethnic grouping.
In a wider sense, ‘Kuba art’ includes the arts of neighbouring peoples whose
artistic works are similar to those produced within the Kuba kingdom. Such
peoples include the Lele and Wongo beyond the Kasai River to the west; the
Biombo between the Kasai and Lulua rivers; the Ooli, Ekolombi and other small
groups north of the River Sankuru; as well as the Ndengese across the Lokenye
River and the Binji to the east. Kuba art first became known about in Europe in
the 1890s through Ludwig Wolf’s account (1891). Scholarly understanding of
Kuba arts is still based mainly on the collections made in the 1890s and 1900s
by William Sheppard, Leo Frobenius and Emil Torday. These are held, respectively
in the main, by the Hampton University College Museum of Hampton Institute,
Hampton, VA; the Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin; and the British Museum,
London. These are just three of the many public collections of Kuba art.
Kuba masks and other arts:
Among the major focuses for Kuba art were the rites of passage, especially
boys’ initiations. The latter involved the building of a wall, in front of
which stood a tall statue of a woman symbolizing the ancestress, studded with
carved heads and other symbolic objects, as well as masks.
All wooden Kuba masks clearly belong to a single style. The oldest one, Bwoom,
represents the nature spirit Ngesh, Pygmy or Commoner depending on the context.
It often forms part of a group including one depicting the ancestor of mankind,
Mwaash aMbooy and his sister, Ngady aMwaash . Beyond these, a dozen other mask
types exist, associated with initiation and representing such figures as Lord,
Mother, Wise Man, Elephant, Ram and Antelope. Masks were also used at funerals
and at the royal dancing-play, Itul, in which King, Mwaash aMbooy, and Commoner,
Bwoom, fought over Woman, Ngady aMwaash.
In addition to the wooden masks, a set made in fibre and netting represented
Servant of Initiation, Snake and Antelope and perhaps some others. A study of
mask types, their nomenclature and their iconography is still needed. Regional
variability is important here. The Bushong at the capital, the Bushong and the
Kete in the south of the country, the Pyang, the eastern Kuba, the Biombo and
perhaps some of the other Kuba groups had their own initiation rituals and their
own masks and icons (see Africa, fig. 85). Among the Bulang and Kete in the
south of the country some tall masks representing the whole bodies of
ancestresses or spirits were also in use.
Other objects associated with religion included special hats for medicine men
and the village priests and priestesses. There were no idols, but there were
representations of charms, including free-standing statues (ishak a dweemy) and
tiny carved figures on the top of dancing staffs (shaang a dweemy), as well as
the small (20–30 mm) figures representing spirits of nature or the dead (nnoon),
especially common in the south-east. The main oracle, the poison ordeal, used no
art objects, but the rubbing oracle, itoom, did. It consisted of a small carving
representing one of four animals related to water spirits, or the body of a
nature spirit itself, with a flat back for rubbing along the top of the oracle.
Overall, however, religion was less a focus for visual art than was the
political organization. The royal enthronement costume assimilated the badges of
all ranks, but it also included elements proper only to the king. The royal
anvil was a symbol of the legitimacy of kingship and its links to the
supernatural. The royal funerals and installations, using a mass of visual
symbols, including the mask Nsho aMwaash aMbooy, emphasized the uniqueness and
the continuity of kingship as well as its relation to the administration.
Kings and chiefs alike possessed drums, stools, adzes and fly-whisks, costumes
and baskets of office. According to rank, notables shared some of these
insignia."
Jan Vansina (The
Grove Dictionary of Art, )
some related Kuba books:
The
Children of Woot : A History of the Kuba Peoples
(Hardcover) Author: Jan Vansina;
On
the trail of the Bushongo; An account of a remarkable & hitherto unknown
African people Author: Emil Torday;
see anoer Ngeende Kuba Mask
+32
3 227.35.40
