This African mask of the Yaka, carved in soft wood, depicts the mythical antelope of local tales, patroness of young initiates. Velvety matte patina, halos and erosions. Hierarchical and authoritarian, made up of formidable warriors, the Yaka society, now established on the banks of the Waamba in the southwest of the R.D.C. (Kasai Occidental), was governed by lineage chiefs with the right to life and death over their subjects. Hunting and the prestige that results from it are nowadays an opportunity for the Yaka to invoke the ancestors and to resort to rituals using charms linked to the "khosi" institution. The youth initiation ceremony, called n-khanda and found among the Eastern Kongo (Chokwe, Luba, etc.), employs various charms and masks with the aim of s ensure a vigorous lineage. Yaka (kalaweni) blacksmith-sculptors were rewarded for their skill by the chiefs. Ref. : C.M.Faïk-Nzuji, The Power of the Sacred; Yaka , Arthur P.Bourgeois , "Tribal Art", Bacquart.
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