Tribal Art

Fang Mask (N° 23924)

African Art Fang
Wearing a visor headdress framed by triangular buns, this mask offers a face with squinted eyes and a protruding grimacing mouth. A ribbed scarification runs from the tip of the nose to the top of the forehead, and divides along the eyebrow arches. Heterogeneous gray beige patina, erosions.
This type of mask was used by the male ngil society which no longer exists today. This secret society was in charge of initiations and fought against witchcraft. The ngil was a rite of purifying fire symbolized by the gorilla. The wearers of these masks, always in large numbers, appeared at night, lit by torches. Their intervention was also linked to the judicial function by pointing out the culprits of bad deeds within the village. The Fang ethnic group, established in a region extending from Yaoundé in Cameroon to Ogooué in Gabon, has never had political unity. Clan cohesion was maintained through religious and judicial associations such as the so and the ngil.