Mambila Mask

Mambila people, Adamawa Region, Northern Cameroon, c.1900 Wood, Job's tear seed, and pigment - 37 cm Provenance: Collected in the Northern Region of British Cameroon before 1959-61 Private collection, United Kingdom European private collection Published: Martin Doustar, Masken. Expression of the Spirits, Brussels, 2015, pp.24-25, cat.6, ill. This mask is very similar to the Mambila mask that belongs to the Barbier-Mueller collection (inv.1018-76). "The Mambila inhabit an area south of the Adamaua Mountains that straddles the border between Cameroon and Nigeria. They use various types of masks during celebrations called suaga, which take place twice a year, at the beginning and end of the agricultural cycle. In general, women are excluded from these masquerades, both as actors and as spectators. Based on the scanty information we have about these rare masks with human features (kiavia), they are kept in the possession of very old men. [...] Mambila works have a unique, unmistakable style. The formal design of this kiavia mask corresponds to the faces of Mambila carved figures. The face itself is formed by a heart-shaped, concave depression from which cylindrical eyes and an unusually long curved nose emerge. At the lower edge is an oval mouth whose lips are accentuated by rows of vertical notches. Its paint, a combination of red, white, and blackish-brown characteristic of Mambila pieces, emphasizes the striking, slightly asymmetrical features and heightens the mask's expressiveness. [...] The expensive camwood powder used, which is imported from the forested region to the west, may as in the neighboring Grasslands, serve to emphasize the solidarity of the kinship community. Earlier, kiavia masks were also made of clay, but these masks were supposedly valued less highly than the wooden ones on account of their fragility. Iris Hahner- herzog in African Masks from the Barbier-Mueller Collection, Geneva, Prestel, Munich, 1997, cat.59