Ferocious Makua Mask

This large and dramatic mask perhaps dates to the 1920s or ’30s. It is one of two on this site by the same carver. Both examples arrived in the U.S. together, having been bought by dealer and exporter Mussa Ruganda in Dar Es Salam from the same “runner” around 1999.

Aggressive masks are often described as “shetani masks” by such runners or field collectors (also known as “bag-men” for their habit of showing up with objects stuffed in recycled nylon grain sacks). This is probably a generic term, even if accurate for some examples. In East African cultural parlance, shetani are indigenous, typically malevolent spirits. The word is derived from the Arabic shaitan, meaning adversary, sometimes translated as devil. Masks identified as shetani often have zoomorphic or foreign (muzungu) features. Like most dance performances in Africa, a large proportion of the audience would be children, the most likely and impressionable target of ferocious masks.

Makonde and Makua ritual and material culture were inadequately studied in the past. Both groups lived in isolated, frontier regions north and south of the Ruvuma River, in impoverished areas of their colonial territories and independent nations of Tanzania and Mozambique. The Makonde, whose heartland were plateau areas abutting the Ruvuma Valley, were especially isolated by terrain and distance from the coast, where seafaring trade introduced foreign goods and influences. Isolation only delayed the inevitable absorption of global culture and dilution of Makonde and Makua traditions. Part of the breakdown resulted from transactional relationships with the national economies and cultures infiltrating Makonde communities, but also Makonde migrant workers spending stretches in outside areas and returning with acquired tastes, knowledge and skills. While it lasted, isolation served not only to slow the breakdown of traditional culture, it also preserved articles of material culture in situ.

Following the relatively intensive collecting of masks, statues and other artifacts by German functionaries, anthropologists, missionaries and travelers between ~1885 and 1914, little was systematically collected by Europeans until the late 1980s. In my view, two conditions became ripe during these years, leading to a commercial run on material culture from both banks of the Ruvuma. First, the collecting of traditional African art had developed into an international economy with many players. Initially dependent on historical stores of traditional art, this economic community was increasingly challenged by a diminishing supply of authentic material, the advancement of fakes, an awareness of counterfeit material and a desire for “something different.” Relatively isolated and unpicked over by the largely Francophone community of field collectors and exporters, East Africa represented fertile new ground. Second, Makonde and Makua people were motivated sellers. They faced economic challenges as well as promise; gas was discovered offshore and advances in infrastructure, the development of road and communications networks and the adoption of global religious beliefs such as Catholicism and Islam were diluting the importance of cultural beliefs and traditions.

According to Festo W. Gabriel in African Archaeology Without Frontiers: Papers from the 2014 PanAfrican Archaeological Association Congress (2016), “the Makonde have cultural performances which, according to the local communities, not only link them to their ancestral spirits but also create a social bond among community members of all ages and genders. Some cultural performances by local communities, popularly known as ‘Makuya,’ are performed annually in the form of a competition among the Makonde, the Makua and the Yao. These traditional performances in the local communities’ viewpoint were beyond recreational performances in that they were accompanied by several other messages in the form of songs, gestures, inspirations and ethics.”

As the importance of these rituals diminished in an environment increasingly tied to the national identity, global religious belief and urban life, the material accoutrements of traditional culture became less potent and personally or communally precious. The 1990s therefore saw an explosion in the commerce of used traditional Makua and Makonde masks. These were largely collected in the field or ferried to middlemen in Dar Es Salam, Mtwara, Mueda and other commercial centers without any reliable information as to the ethnicity or name of the community of origin — nor the name of the mask, its purpose or age. This state of affairs is not unique to Makonde and Makua material culture, even though it occurred at a later date to similar deaccessioning episodes in Central and West Africa. The difference is, even less serious study of the cultures in question preceded or followed up on the phenomenon than elsewhere on the continent.

$1,500

8.5″ H

Inquire About This Item