Bearded Likomba Mask

This mask is unique in my experience. It’s the only half-mask or likomba I have seen where the dancer looks out through such a large mouth opening in the middle of the mask, balanced by an enormous carved beard. Both the beard and the head were once richly adorned with human hair collected from local volunteers or the neighborhood barber and then pressed into cuts in the soft wood comprising the mask. Probably dating to the 1990s, the mask is markedly more Western than masks of 40 or even 30 years earlier. It also shows possible influences of Western, Christian imagery one might find in illustrated copies of the Old and New Testament, Sunday school books, and calendars.

14.5″ H

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