Vabo Masquerade Mask (Female)

Origin: Mumuye Tribe, Nigeria
Composition: wood, hide, pigment
Age: Early 20th century

In earlier times, masked ceremonies closed the Mumuye initiation period. Each age class formed a defensive unit for the village, that also worked the land and hunted. The first manifestation of this small group's spirit of solidarity is the pooling of resources to have a mask produced to symbolize their collective identity. These masks, which represented abstract animals (buffalo, monkey, elephant, leopard, and so on), were called va or vabo, and initiates called them "Sons of Va." A particularly well-off age class might even finance a second mask, this time a female one (such as this piece), called "grandmother." The masks would be danced at the time of sowing, harvesting, funerals, or other important events. Priests, whose duties were hereditary, kept the masks in sanctuaries when they weren't being used (Kerchache, "Art of Africa").

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