Why I love African Tribal Masks
I have a real fascination for African Art, in particular tribal masks. It is a huge subject and I have managed to glean a small amount of knowledge and have discovered a few wonderful places to go if you are interested to know more...
The Tradition of African Masks
Traditional African masks are worn in ceremonies and rituals across West, Central, and Southern Africa. They are used in events such as harvest celebrations, funerals, rites of passage, weddings and coronations. Some societies also use masks to resolve disputes and conflicts. Masks are a prominent feature of African cultural heritage. The history, use, and symbolism of masks vary across national, ethnic, and cultural identities. In West Africa, masking traditions are closely linked with the history of masquerades.
Origins
Artist carvers and crafts people used a wide variety of materials to produce the objects for everyday and ritual use - materials from natural occurring resources, from wild or domestic animals, and imported materials. Virtually all cultures use species of tree and plant, and earth minerals, such as clay, ocher, basalt, jade, obsidian, and precious metals. As well as skins from wild animals, more rare and valued materials, such as feathers, quills, hair, ivory, bone, antlers, seashells, horn, coral and seeds were often used as decoration.
Shared Family Interest
I find tribal art both fascinating and beautiful and I have begun to collect the odd mask. My father has some great books on the subject and a growing collection of masks and tribal figures. Here are some of his tribal figures from different parts of Africa.
Here is a female African figure now living in a hall in a flat in Tunbridge Wells. How I wish these items could tell their story but sadly they cannot.
Animal Themes
Often African masks are animal-themed and represent the spirits and inherent qualities of animals, connecting communities with the natural world and symbolising virtues. Common subjects include antelopes (grace, abundance, agriculture), buffalo (strength), leopards (power, leadership), and other creatures such as birds, crocodiles, and hyenas. These masks are not literal depictions but stylised portrayals of the animal's inner essence and are used in ceremonies and rituals.
Nature motifs in African masks celebrate the cyclical nature of life and the interconnectedness of all living things. They remind us of our place within the intricate web of the natural world, encouraging us to live in harmony with the earth and its diverse ecosystems.
The gorgeous small monkey mask belongs to my father and it is one of my favourites next to his antelope mask.
Another one of my favourites is his chicken mask.
The chimp mask is superb, it decorated with shells and is the latest added to his collection, bought at auction.
There is a collector in Tunbridge Wells who has a secret collection of magnificent African art in the basement of his shop. I was lucky to go and see it with my father as they have known one another a long time. He had so many beautiful items but his shield collection was truly superb. It was totally packed with the most wonderful pieces.
Masks as Ritual Objects
The quintessential African cultural object is probably the mask. The trouble is that when viewed in museum most of the meaning is lost. The mask should be seen when part of a set of rituals, which include pulsating music and drum beats, flickering firelight, violent movement and the reaction of the audience.
How Masks are worn
Masks are worn in one of three ways: as a crest above the head; over the face or at a slant on the forehead; or over the head as a "helmet". Masquerade performances occur for many different reasons, but generally associated with secular or religious ceremonies, male and female initiations, sacred cults, funerals, hunting, farming, detecting bad magic, apprehending witches, adjudicating disputes, and for entertainment.
Ardingley Antiques Fair Exhibitor
Dad and I regurxarly visit the Ardingley Antique Fair together and often meet the tribal art dealers Owen Hargreaves and Jasmine Dahl @tribalspace. They are based in London's Portobello Road.
It is really nice to be able to touch them, pick them up and see them close up rather than in a museum behind glass.
Chuni Mombassa's Tribal Art Collector and Dealer
Chunilal Shah known as Chuni is an Indian born, 84 year old, Kenyan who lives in Mombassa in a house stuffed full of tribal art. I was lucky enough to visit him when I was staying with my friend in Kenya in 2023. His father had a shop selling utensils and Chuni was one of many siblings and as a very young man in order to pay for their education he was asked to work, so he began collecting. He eventually opened his shop to sell them in Mombassa and had it till 2009. There is something even nicer seeing the art situated in a house.
It was really such good fun looking around his home and seeing his collection. I came away with my first mask just a simple plain wood one, a beautiful set of carved ebony giraffe heads and three ebony fertility sculptures that got all the border guards smirking.
African sculpture is most often figurative, representing the human form and fashioned primarily from wood, but it can also be stylised, abstracted and carved from stone. It can span centuries and be as ancient as the advent of tools or as modern as right now, today, where it is lauded and appreciated as a contemporary art form.
Tribal Art Fair London
Formally known as Tribal Perspectives and launched in 2007. TAL began in a single gallery space off Portobello Road, Notting Hill, West London as a group show for a handful of UK dealers in authentic tribal art. Over the years since it moved venues several times as it expanded. In 2023 it's new venue and current exhibition space is Evolution, London in leafy Battersea Park and a partnership with the internationally renowned, The Decorative Fair.
This mask was very unusual I particularly like the crochets piece that goes over the neck.
Tribal Dealer Le Panier Marseille
While on a visit to the fabulous city of Marseille down a small side street in the arts district of le Panier I came across a wonderful shop run by another old tribal art dealer called Kleben.
He was also in his 80's and had zero English, so with my poor French it was hard to chat to him in the way I would have liked. I did understand that he had started travelling through Africa at a young age and started being interested and dealing in African art from the age of eighteen. He explained he was too frightened to travel there now at his age. He still had a huge collection of pieces and they were piled on top of each other and it was almost impossible to get to anything.
However I managed to root through a few bits and found two items I wanted to buy - a ritual masque from Burkina Fasso in West Africa probably worn by dancers. It is now on one side of our front door in the hall.
But my other piece is a really unusual mask from the ivory coast. I have never seen a image of anything like it before, so I have a feeling it is quite rare. He tried to explain about it and I understood that it was a mask for a liar certainly a person that was not very nice. A mask with two mouths.
The highlight of the meeting was showing me his oldest and most prized item which he was very proud of it was a very strange item which made me feel slightly uncomfortable.
I guess that is because he explained it was a voodoo piece and inside the base which looks like old leather wrapped in rope were parts of a human sacrifice.
Artist Edson Chagas
Edson Chagas is an Angolan photographer. Trained as a photojournalist, his work explore cities and consumerism. His 'Found Not Taken' series resituates abandoned objects elsewhere within cities. His other large-format photograph series play on tropes related to African masks.
I went to a brilliant inspiring exhibition a the Tate Modern in 2023. Where I saw his collection called Tipo Passe (2012–2014) is a large-scale portrait photograph series depicting models dressed in nondescript, contemporary attire contrasting with traditional African masks. The clothes came from street markets and import retailers, while the masks came from a private collection. The prints were made in editions of seven.
This is a fabulous mask. I love the way the raffia is used all around the edge representing hair.
The Symbolic Language of African Masks
African masks are not mere decorative objects; they are vessels of meaning and communication. Every motif and symbol on a mask tells a story, conveying messages that transcend spoken language.
In some African cultures, a spirit inhabits a mask upon its creation. When a man (or, on rare occasions, a woman) puts on a mask and costume they give up their own being. The identity of the spirit takes over. Sometimes this spirit can be of another person, such as an ancestor. Other times the spirit is an animal or natural force.
The person who performs with a mask, called a masker, will undergo a physical change.
Fécondité Montpellier France
I discovered a new museum in Montpellier in the Beaux Art district, which has only been open for a year. It is dedicated to artistic representations of female fecundity through the ages and across world cultures. Dr. Vincent Fauveau travelled the world for forty years as a doctor dedicated to women's health, collecting objects of a wide variety and often very unusual items. Here I saw for the first time pregnant woman's belly masks.
The African Makonde masks representing a pregnant woman's belly are very famous in the tribal art of Tanzania and Mozambique. These masks have a generous chest and a swollen abdomen indicating that the future mother is nearing the end of her pregnancy.
The subject of childbirth is widespread throughout the African continent. This traditional mask bears the ethnic name of "njorowe".
Among the Makonde, tradition has it that this belly reminds one of an African Pygmalion. This pregnant woman's womb is part of the initiation material for young boys. A dance will stage the birth. The passage to adult life is carried out for girls and boys through initiation rituals. The latter are recluse for several months to practice their main future activities. The initiation rituals include training in sexuality as well as the obligations of married life. At the end of the boys' isolation, festivities are organised, and the return to community life is celebrated with ceremonies; one of the most important, after the circumcision of the adolescents, is the bringing out of the Ndimu mask which evokes a young pregnant woman.
This is not an African mask but a Tibetan one. They sometimes made masks using tortoise or turtle shells, particularly in the past for rituals and good luck charms. These Kapala masks, crafted from real turtle shells, are considered valuable and collectable, with some examples dating back centuries and others being modern-day reproductions. This hangs on my wall in my sitting room another find at Ardingley Antique Fair.
There is so much to find interesting in these objects but for me it is a combination of the skill, ingenuity and materials used to make them and the stories behind their lives and travels. There is something I find compelling about the community and the rituals that these masks were part of.