African Arts Gallery

This moralizing mask of the Pende established in Upper Kwango, Pende Mbangu or Bwala-Bwala, illustrates the result of facial paralysis caused by witchcraft rituals. He dances among masks embodying other characters. The dancer who wears this comedy mask wears a feather hat gifuatu of guinea fowl, coucal or turaco, or the lumbandu, a crown of leaves. It is also often fitted with a hump on its back, exaggerating the character's handicapped appearance. Abraded matte patina, erosions.
The western Pende live on the banks of the Kwilu, while the eastern people have settled on the banks of the Kasai downstream from Tshikapa. The influences of neighboring ethnic groups, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba and Salempasu imprinted on their large tribal art sculpture. Within this diversity, the Mbuya masks, realistic, produced every ten years, take on a festive function, and embody different characters that are difficult to differentiate without their costume, including the chief fumu or ufumu, the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the jester, tundu, the possessed, etc... (Art and Life in Africa, C.D. Roy; " Hang" Strother) The Western Pende live on the banks of the Kwilu, while the Easterners settled on the banks of the Kasai downstream from Tshikapa. The influences of the neighboring ethnic groups, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba and Salempasu have been imprinted on their large sculpture of tribal art. Within this diversity, the realistic Mbuya masks, produced every ten years, have a festive function, and embody different characters that are difficult to differentiate without their costume, including the chief, the soothsayer and his wife, the prostitute, the jester, the tundu, the possessed, etc... ( Art and Life in Africa, C.D. Roy; "Pende" Strother)