African Arts Gallery

Companion to the African Pwo mask, always worn by dancers of royal descent, this large mask is also used during the initiation rites of the mukanda society. The sacred mask Chihongo (chihongo also being a plant with therapeutic virtues), endowed with a wide grimacing mouth, is used during circumcision rites and royal ceremonies. The characteristic patterns on the forehead, and sometimes on the cheekbones, are part of the Chokwe aesthetic canons but also served as public markers of ethnic identity, such as the chingelyengelye cross.
Brown satin patina, erosions and desication cracks.
Peacefully settled in eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwé were then subjected to the Lunda empire from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sacredness of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwé never fully adopted these new social and political contributions. Three centuries later, they ended up seizing the capital of the Lunda weakened by internal conflicts, thus contributing to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwé did not have centralized power but large chiefdoms. They were the ones who attracted artists wishing to put their know-how at the exclusive service of the court. The artists created so many varied pieces and of such quality that the Lunda court only employed them. (source: Chokwe; B. Wastiau. ed. 5Continents.)