Mask (ndeemba)
early 1900s
Maker Unknown
African Art
Mask (ndeemba), early 1900s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yaka-style carver. Wood, raffia, paint, and cotton; overall: 47 cm (18 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Katherine C. White 1969.8 This Mask (Ndeemba) has been featured prominently in the African galleries since making its debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1962. Dated to the 1900s, the object is part of a group of eight masks that appear at the end of the circumcision and puberty ritual (n-khanda) for Yaka boys. It would have marked the new status of the boys who became men and commemorated their re-entry into the village. Affirming age-long tradition, such masks are worn by the master of the initiation or by the newly initiated himself.
- Maker/Artist
- Maker Unknown
- Classification
- Mask
- Formatted Medium
- Wood, raffia, paint, and cotton
- Dimensions
- Overall: 47 cm (18 1/2 in.)
- Departments
- African Art
- Accession Number
- 1969.8
- Credit Line
- Gift of Katherine C. White
- Exhibitions
- Year in Review: 1969, Second Careers: Two Tributaries in African Art, CMA 1968: "African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection," cat. no. 231, repr.<br>CMA 1970: "Year in Review 1969," CMA Bulletin LVII (Jan., 1970), p. 47, no. 132, repr. p. 42.<br>CMA 1978: Handbook, 1978, p. 412.<br>CMA 1991: Handbook, 1991, p. 151.
- Rights Statement
- CC0
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