Bushoong-Bwoon Type Ceremonial Helmet Dance Mask

During the 16th century, the Kuba people migrated from the north and settled between the Sankuru and Kasai Rivers. The Kuba are subdivided into a number of clans: the Bushoong, the Ngeende, the Kete, the Lele, the Binji, the Dengese, the Mbuun, and the Wongo tribes. Each clan pays homage and tribute to the Nyim, the king of the Bushoong ruling clan, but their internal affairs are dealt with autonomously.

It is very difficult to determine or ascertain which group or clan actually executed this mask without carefully studying the iconographies of the object in question.

This large helmet-type mask has a cloth-fiber fetish-bundle on the top center of the head. Drilled holes around the nose are used as peepholes for the performing dancer. Scarifications are shown over the forehead, cheeks, and nose. A large protruding neck collar with many holes is used for decorative raffia and the dancer’s costume. This mask has a classic Kuba-styled haircut, a typical coiffure of the region.

Provenance: The first known American collector was the renowned collector Lawrence P. Kolton and Rachel Angotti of Michigan City, Indiana, between the years of 1969 and 1979.