African Arts Gallery

Mask Zande or Ngbandi Ubangi (N° 16849)

The wooden labret that runs through the upper lip of this mask would once have been a specificity of the groups of the north-west of the Ubangi. The slight shape of the forehead, cheekbones and chin give realism to this mask on which clumped particles have left a crusty deposit at the mouth and on the headdress. The dark patina has age erosions, revealing the underlying light wood.
Onesses referred to as " Niam-Niam " because they are considered anthropophages, the tribes grouped under the name Zande , Azandé , settled, from Chad, on the border of the R.D.C. (Zaire), Sudan and the Central African Republic. According to their beliefs, man is endowed with two souls, one of whom turns into a totem animal of the clan to which he belongs. The African tribal art of the Zande, or ", which possess a lot of land, apart from their court art consisting of spoons, receptable, pipes and harps, counts two types of statues: The Kudu statues of a height of between 30 and 50 cm represent ancestors. There are also statues called Yanda of 10 to 20 cm, of animal or human form, having an apotropaic role, exhibited during divinatory rites during the rituals of the Mani-Yanda society. The leaders of this association gathered a dozen statues on an altar in a hut in the forest.