What does the Bundu mask represent?
Bundu masks, created in the 19th and 20th centuries in Sierra Leone, were crafted by men but worn by women during initiation masquerades. These masks represent the importance of women in Mende society, as well as the emphasis on adhering to the ideal of a young Mende woman.
Which culture has a female masking society?
The ceremonies of the Sande society are the only occasions in Africa in which women customarily wear masks. Wooden masks worn during these public ceremonies, such as funerals or the installations of chiefs, are called sowo (sing. sowei) and represent the society’s guardian spirit.
What is the function of the Sande society?
The Sande society initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female circumcision. It is alleged by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.
What is distinctive about the Mende mask tradition?
Worn at performances to celebrate the completion of the young initiates’ training period, these masks are finely carved to convey admired feminine features: an elaborate coiffure, a smooth broad forehead, narrowly slit eyes, a small composed mouth, and a sensuously ringed neck.
What is the purpose and symbolism of the Mende Sowei mask?
The sowei mask is a “helmet mask” that is worn over the head and the rest of the dancer’s body is hidden by blackened raffia fibers and cloth. Since the mask serves as the visual connection to the spiritual world, the officials’ faces and bodies are not visible, and thus conceal any human attributes.
Who is SOWO?
sacred mask of the spirit Sowo is an iconographic depiction of the association of women and water spirits and attests to the creative power of both. (Masks are an important part of ritual in many African religions; they often represent ancestors, culture heroes, gods, and cosmic dynamics or the cosmic…
Who wears the Sowei mask?
Sowei mask used by the exclusively female Sande (Mende) or Bondo/Bundu (Temne) societies. The mask is traditionally worn by a high-ranking member of the society, the dancing sowei, known as the ‘ndoli jowei’ among the Mende or ‘a-Nowo’ among the Temne.
What does Sowei mean?
Noun. sowei (plural soweis) A guardian spirit of a Sande society of the Mende, who is represented by a special helmet-like mask.
What does Sande mean?
Definition of Sande : a Liberia and Sierra Leone secret custom by which young girls are secluded in a separate camp for a variable period of months and trained in the duties and responsibilities of adult society.
What is distinctive about the Mende mask tradition quizlet?
The Mende people are unique in that women may own or even wear the masks themselves. Covered their faces in white chalk. Elder females would wear this mask. Ritual was meant to fatten them up, rolls on the neck is a beauty idea.
Where did the Mende come from?
Mende, people of Sierra Leone, including also a small group in Liberia; they speak a language of the Mande branch of the Niger-Congo family. The Mende grow rice as their staple crop, as well as yams and cassava. Cash crops include cocoa, ginger, peanuts (groundnuts), and palm oil and kernels.
What is Sowei?
Among the Mende people in Sierra Leone, the Sande (or Bondo) society has traditionally overseen the transition of girls from childhood into adulthood. Girls would be taken into the forest and taught the secret knowledge of women. The sowei mask is unique because it is danced by a woman.