African Arts Gallery

African mask combining elements of Kuba, Kete, and Ngeende ritual sculptures, painted with polychrome patterns. This type of mask, with bulging eyes, appeared during initiation ceremonies for young people and at the funerals of important members of the community. Matte patina, minor abrasions and chips.
The Kete, established between the Luba and the Songye, have mixed with the Kuba and the Tschokwe and derive their livelihood from hunting, net fishing, and agriculture. Their matrilineal society worships nature spirits called mungitchi through offerings and incantations. Believing in reincarnation, they also fear a supreme god called mboom. The rituals of their initiatory societies are different from those of the Kuba. Some Kete villages once paid a tax to the king of the Kuba. Groups borrowed masks from their neighbors or took certain features from them which they combined with their own creations. The itoom friction oracles are believed to have originally been a Kete production. Their masks which are worn by initiates or their instructors depending on the case are associated with initiation ceremonies and funeral rituals.