Bundu Mask

• Object: Bundu Mask
• Artist: -
• Circa: -
• Dimensions: 17"H x 10"W
• Culture Area: Africa / Sierra Leone / Liberia / Guinea / Ivory Coast
• Cultural Group: Mende
• Cultural Context: 114.199 Sande Society – Mende People This mask resembles the mask used by the members of the Sande Society during young girls’ initiation. Young girls among many different ethnic groups, including the Mende, would have been taken from their everyday lives and their chores to secluded area in the forest where they would be instructed on how to become good wives and good mothers by the members of the Sande Society. Sande (also known as Bundu) society was a secret society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. And all of them were in this society were initiated into this ritual. There is a real symbolism in being taken from the village into this more dangerous place. This was a liminal time for girls and their bodies would be anointed with white clay to make them dry and pasty and unattractive to suggest that they were not girls but hadn’t yet become women. And so, it was outside of the realm of the village, where this could take place. The masks got a beautiful deep black sheen, the surface is smooth and glistening, and is in such contrast to that chalky white of their faces. This black shininess is really the ideal. So what the artist has done, the carver, is create an image that suggests an inner quality or the inner morality that young girls should strive for. The mask becomes an ideal for the young girls to mimic in their adult lives. The eyes are largely closed and seem quite demure, very small mouth and very petite ears. The downcast eyes suggest that she should be reserved. The small mouth suggests she should keep her mouth closed and not gossip. Gossip being the most dangerous thing in a small society, in many cases. And the small ears so as not to listen to that gossip. But probably most evident is the wildly elaborate hair style. One of the other most evident features are the rolls of fat under the chin. The artist suggests that she is full figured, that she has enough body fat to be able to bear children. And she us expected after initiation to marry and have children. Also in seclusion, during initiation, is the only time a young girl is given really rich foods to eat and can enjoy time off. So it is intended to fatten her up a little bit too. While all the girls are in seclusion, in that liminal space, not yet women but no longer girls, they are referred to as chrysalis that is not quite the butterfly but no longer the caterpillar. And that shape is also echoed in the shape of her neck. So we have multiple meanings which are partly to do with the fact that girls are exposed to different knowledge at different times in their life when the Sande members feel that it is appropriate. While this mask is intended to instruct young girls about proper womanhood, it actually never speaks. So this silent mask is able to teach young girls and the way in which that is done is through dance. So the mask teaches the girls particular dance movements and stories to those dances, telling girls not only practical information on how to cook and raise kids, but also spiritual knowledge and information about their belief system. So the mask is this container of these very rich tradition. When we see it without its raffia. The Sowei mask is thought to be a spirit . She comes from the bottoms of rivers and lakes. Below her eyes, there are four lines on either side. These are scarification marks and they are part of the ideal aesthetic for a young Mende woman. ***This is a Pan West African phenomenon where several different ethnic groups participated in this masquerade tradition. Some masks would have not being wear in from of the face but in top of the head. But the person who wore it would have been obscured by raffia, they would have hung down over the face. But what makes it really unique is it is the only masquerade tradition, that we know of, where women wore the mask. Men would have make this mask, would have carved it, but the entire ritual was performed by, and for, women. “This is not just historical, this is continuing tradition. Because of the civil war in Sierra Leone. And surrounding countries, all sorts of conflicts, we don’t know to what extend this tradition continues today.” Reference: A conversation with Dr. Peri Klemm and Dr. Steven Zucker looking at Helmet Mask for Sande Society, Mende, Nguabu, late 19th-early 20th century. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN1qz8tp89g Writeup by student employee Debora Vitaliano 09_08_2022 Another reference, copied from an in-house sign, author unknown: Only women of the Sande Society are permitted to wear wooden helmet masks in their ritual dances. The sacredness of the mask lies in its deeper meaning as a representation of the long deceased founder of Sande society. It also presents an ideal of feminine beauty admired by the Mende: elaborate hairstyle, full forehead and small facial features. The gleaming surface signifies healthy, glowing skin. The swelling fleshy rolls alternating with deep incised lines at the neck or back of the head are considered marks of beauty and a promise of fecundity. Masked dancing provides a festive mood appropriate to the completion of the several stages of initiation. Masks are seen in public at several key moments during the procesS. Their appearances serve to announce to families of initiates that certain stages have been successfully accomplished and that preparation of foods and gifts of money must be completed. A mask may collect food from the community to take back to where initiation is taking place. She comes into the community to announce the imminent coming out of the girls, and she leads them into town on their first visit after the process has started. Finally, she leads the richly dressed girls into town when they have completed their training and are released. This is the high point of the entire process, for the girls are now recognized as marriageable, adult women. The mask may appear at other times to bring justice to offenders of Sande law, to perform in respect at the funeral of an important leader of the society, and to participate in ceremonies in which a new mask is initiated into the work of Sande. In pre-colonial times, women could hold the position of chief of a village cluster; until the 1970s women politicians continued to use the Sande society to support and further their careers in modern government. With increasingly rigorous Islamization, however, the Sande society is being seriously modified or even disbanded.
• Donor: Barbara & Hiro Narita
• Catalog #: 114.199