Masque Kwélé de Mékambo, Gabon oriental

Name: Masque Kwélé de Mékambo, Gabon oriental
SKU: 3471
Price: 4100.00 EUR
Availability: InStock

€4.100,00

Catégorie : Pièces muséales

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Eastern Gabon. The region of Mékambo, in eastern Gabon, is populated by several groups which have developed over the past centuries all kinds of contacts: commercial, matrimonial, linguistic and cultural. They are the Kota-Mahongwe, the Bakota proper, the Bungom and the Kwele of the West. The transmission of plastic elements (shapes and decorations) took place within initiations, in particular that of mungala, reserved for young people. We note in this area the importance of the rituals linked to the notion of ngoye (literally, the “panther”), a vital principle that we seek to find in the impetants of satsi, the circumcision ceremony. Most of the masks in the region, from different communities, are thus decorated with the colors of the mythical fawn’s fur, with a red background, dotted with white and black eyespots. Other masks, often animal (“ekuk”), came to the Kota of Mékambo, from the Kwéle regions of neighboring North Congo. We find the horns of the antelope and a contrasting black and white decor, with the recognizable morphology of the eyes stretched into almond.

Literature: “The native forests”, Musée du Quai Branly, 2017, p.117 – fig. 7.