Kifwebe Mask

Songye people, Congo

13 inches, wood

This beautiful kifwebe mask is unpigmented and decorated with finely-spaced parallel grooves. Highly-stylized, it is based on the face of an adult female gorilla, with an impression of thick fur and protruding lips. It has a wonderful patina and shows signs of wear on the rear, however, for a period of years Kifwebe masks were among the most reproduced and cleverly faked masks on the market. At worst, this is an extraordinarily well crafted reproduction.

The kifwebe society was a judicial and regulatory association whose main task was to identify sorcerers, witches, evildoers and those who broke the ethical codes of the clan. Punishment would come in the course of a village dance, or in a midnight visit; kifwebe members, shouting accusations in raucous voices, wearing shaggy costumes and the fierce masks of the society, would attack the offender. The sentence might be a public humiliation or a beating, even perhaps death.

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