Q: I recently purchased this mask from a Cameroonian street vendor in NYC. He said it was from Congo. It is made of wood, fairly light and pithy (palmwood?) and is roughly 16″H. After some online research I found a Bushoong mask that was on exhibit in Durango, CO earlier this year: As you can see it is strikingly similar. So perhaps mine is of Bushoong origins or a reproduction there of. More importantly I’m curious of it’s spiritual connotations. Is it for divination, sorcery, initiation? Goodwill, evil?  Chris, 566A A: I also looked through some books and searched the internet finding nothing quite like your mask.

“My name is Salihu Ibrahim, and I was born in the eastern region of Ghana in 1964. My father, Ibrahim, died when I was a child and I’m certain his death actually changed and shaped the course of my life. With the death of my father, I was sent to live with one of my father’s closest friends, Opanin Osei, a renowned traditional carver to the then Akwamu chief and the people of Akwamu. At the age of ten, I was fully under the carving tutelage and control of Opanin Osei, who usually carved the items and then passed them on to me for the final polishing and beautification. I…

In recent years Phyllis Galembo, Professor of Art at the University of Albany, has traveled around the world photographing traditional masquerade. She finds villages where the rituals and celebrations are still in use and she captures these beautiful performers on film. One of her books, Maske, published in 2010, is filled with photos from Africa and the Caribbean. The mask (on the left) is from an Aromgba village in Nigeria. Here are a few more of her pics.