TS_Art of Africa_4C.qxp 10/17/2011 3:51 PM Page 190
Mask (Punu).
Gabon.
Wood, pigments, height: 31 cm.
Private collection.The “white” masks of the Okuyidance, an intercommunity
ritual belonging to the beliefs linked to the Mwiri
initiations, exist in the large south half of Gabon in the
Punu tribes, but also in several other populations related to
them. Dancers doing acrobatics, up on high stilts, wear this
mask in the shape of a female figure. Sometimes, the
masks fight during battles between rival villages. The
forehead pattern in red “scales”, symbolically refering to
the primitive clans of the Bayaka-Punu populations, are
exceptionally developed here.