{"id":1308,"date":"2013-10-07T15:32:54","date_gmt":"2013-10-07T15:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2015-10-26T15:48:44","modified_gmt":"2015-10-26T15:48:44","slug":"unusual-mask-from-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/unusual-mask-from-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Unusual mask from the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1314\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1314\" style=\"width: 250px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/aaaMystrySolvd-566n.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1314\" alt=\"Bushoong- Kuba\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/aaaMystrySolvd-566n.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"436\" srcset=\"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/aaaMystrySolvd-566n.jpg 250w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/aaaMystrySolvd-566n-172x300.jpg 172w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1314\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bushoong- Kuba<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Q:<\/strong> 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&#8243;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&#8217;m curious of it&#8217;s spiritual connotations. Is it for divination, sorcery, initiation? Goodwill, evil?\u00a0 Chris, 566A<\/p>\n<p><strong>A:<\/strong> I also looked through some books and searched the internet finding nothing quite like your mask. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Bushoong people, who are near the Lele, Biombo and Ngeende in central Democratic Republic of the Congo, are a good guess. But I wouldn&#8217;t consider a mixed mask show organized by a small art museum in Colorado as the last word on this. Maybe one of our collector friends will have a comment. Another possibility is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.african_arts@yahoogroups.com\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline; color: #000000;\">african_arts@yahoogroups.com<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/a> There are many people in this discussion group who know more about African masks than I. To see the other Bushoong mask go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/storyimage\/DU\/20130404\/ARTS02\/130409837\/EP\/1\/3\/EP-130409837.jpg\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">http:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/storyimage\/DU\/20130404\/ARTS02\/130409837\/EP\/1\/3\/EP-130409837.jpg<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8243;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&#8217;m curious of it&#8217;s spiritual connotations. Is it for divination, sorcery, initiation? Goodwill, evil?\u00a0 Chris, 566A A: I also looked through some books and searched the internet finding nothing quite like your mask.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1314,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3261,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions\/3261"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}