African Arts Gallery

Belgian African art collection
The "disease" masks Pende Mbangu illustrate, by their deformed features, the patient in epileptic crisis or the result of facial paralysis caused by witchcraft rituals. 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.
Satin brown patina. Abrasions, internal splinters.
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, including the chief fumu or ufumu , the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the jester, tundu, the possessed, etc...