Lega mask

In contrast with most other African masks, which hide the wearer's face, Lega masks can be worn on the side or the back of the head, hung from a beard or carried in the hands. They can also be piled up or grouped on the ground, or suspended from a fence or a pole.

The most common type of Lega mask is the small lukwakongo mask, which often has a fibre beard, symbolizing old age. The name is associated with death and the dead. These masks are the personal possessions of the bwami members who have reached yananio, the penultimate level. 

Although they are not portraits and do not represent a specific ancestor, the masks are heirlooms from former initiates and so evoke happy memories. Most important is the idea that the deceased are not really dead, but go on living through the masks they have left behind, thus allowing their descendants to carry on their traditions. The aphorisms recited as an accompaniment during the rituals refer to the philosophical and moral principles of the bwami.  

Lega Mask, Zaire    

The Lega  mask "lukwakongo"  was used in the rites leading to membership in the "lutombwo lwa yananio" grade of the "bwami" society. Small masks do not represent specific personalities but generalized human faces, such as the father's, donor of life and center of authority. If used in dance, they serve as memory of the great virtues the fathers strove for and the vices they rejected. These virtues must be cultivated generation after generation to maintain "bwami" and preserve the social order. Thus, the cold, stern, passionless faces of the masks signify the ever-present ancestral sanctions of virtues.

Literature:

Cameron, Elisabeth Lynn, Art of the Lega  , Los Angeles 2001, p. 192, ill. 9.28