Lega mask
Collected in situ in 1945 by Baudouin de Malmaut
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This beautiful Idumu Lega mask, Museum quality has a very high quality of
carving. Heart shaped and a second pear of eyes looking towards the
future and the past on the checks. This type of mask was only used during the
last grade of the Bwami, and is very rare on the market . It has a honey patina
you'll also find on Bembe statues.
This mask has
a very strong carving and was already in a private collection since the early
sixties where Michel Boulanger bought it, it was collected around 1945.
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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" Literature:
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During rituals, a larger type of Lega mask was attached
to a fence and surrounded by the smaller lukwakongo masks. The Idimu (or Idumu)
mask represented "the Master of the Land surrounded by his children,"
and symbolized the unity and cohesion of the communities that gathered around it
in present, past and future.
This mask was published in the catalog from the Portugal Lisboa Antiques Biennal, and also in Casa Jardim Portugal from March 2006 .
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David
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