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A fine Mamiwata Yoruba mask

This 2.4Gelede mask from the Yoruba, represents a Mamiwata water spirit snake.

I got it from a German collector. Probable period around 1950's. Gelede mask where painted with European oil paints since the end of the XIXth century.

Price not available

The Gelede cult honors the power of women.

Gelede is only one part of the cult, the diurnal half, Efe being the noctural other half. Efe/Gelede ceremonies usually take place at the beginning of an agricultural cycle, at funerals, or at times of need such as drought or disease. The occurance of the masked dance is determined by the female cult head, iyalase (Drewal 552).

 The Gelede festival pays tribute to female mystical power of ancestors, elders, and dieties.

These women are known as "our mothers." The power of "our mothers" is at once constructive, relating to fertility, knowledge of the secret of life, and also destructive, a surreptitious power, aje, which is more like witchcraft. (Drewal and Drewal 8)

The Mamiwaa deity is often represented as a mermaid half-Human half-fish or reptile

Related book:

Mami Wata Henry John Drewal,...

related article:  Mamiwata

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