Healer's Mask

Origin: Tempa Songye (Tetela) Tribe, D.R. Congo
Composition: wood, rattan (woven into three-part coiffure)

This mask comes from the Tempa Songye, the southernmost group of the Tetela tribe. This group also neighbors the Songye tribe, and the influence of the Songye's powerful kifwebe masks is unmistakable. These masks were worn by healers during important tribal ceremonies (Ref: Herzog, "African Masks").

The Tetela are a sub-group, or rather a related tribe, to the Songye, who are famous for their Kifwebe ritual face masks with elaborate incised geometric designs. According to William Fagg, an important field researcher, "The Batetela are a large tribe, or tribal complex, forming part of the vast Mongo-speaking group which dominated the first independent government of the Congo in 1960 (Patrice Lumumba himself being Mutetela). They live to the northeast and east of the Kuba, and their art seems to be closely related to that of the Songye to the south, having similarly strong cubist tendencies" (Ref: "Tribes and Forms in African Art").