One of a Kind

Solid WoodOne Piece of WoodStand Included

Hover to zoom Kwele Mask, a Kwele mask carved from wood in Cameroon, with a white heart-shaped face and narrow eyes, on a metal stand

Cameroon, Central Africa · Kwele Tribe

Kwele Mask

Name: Kwele Mask
Brand: York's Shona Gallery
SKU: M015
Price: 450.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Piece #M015 · Year Made: 1967

$450

Shipping individually quoted

Origin

Cameroon, Central Africa

Period

Mid-20th Century

Medium

Hand Carved Wood

Length

9"

Width

5"

Height

11"

Details & Materials

York's Shona Gallery presents the "Kwele Mask" by the Kwele tribe of Cameroon. It features a recessed, heart-shaped face that frames narrow eyes and a triangular nose, finished in white kaolin against a dark, aged patina. Kwele masks are used in ceremonies to promote well-being and community.

At 11" tall, the mask is hand carved from wood and was made in 1967. It is lightweight and can be mounted on the wall or displayed on the custom mask stand included with your purchase.

Condition: Excellent, not previously owned, undamaged
Sourcing: Fair Trade
Certificate of Authenticity: Available Upon Request
Provenance Report: Available Upon Request

Shipping

Buy now and leave the shipping to us. At checkout you pay for the piece plus a shipping deposit. We then plan the packing for your piece and email you the remaining shipping balance. This applies to both domestic and international orders. Every shipment is tracked, and most deliveries need a signature.

Domestic: 5-8 business days
International: 10-14 business days
White-glove delivery available on request

Care & Placement

Dust with a soft, dry cloth. Keep it out of direct sunlight, away from radiators, dampness, and any sudden change of temperature. Do not place in extremely cold areas. It is light enough to hang on a few nails, or stand it on the stand included

Authenticity guaranteed, every piece verified

Packed and shipped by our team, insured and tracked

New York City gallery, est. 1983

Origin

Cameroon

Central Africa

"When I was first exposed to African art, I felt a deep connection to it. It is hard to explain. It resonates with me spiritually."

Michael, Founder

York's Shona Gallery was the first in New York City to bring African sculpture to American collectors. Every piece in our collection is acquired directly, ensuring authenticity and fair exchange with the artists and communities who create them.

Origin

Cameroon, Central Africa

Tribe / Artist

Kwele Tribe

Medium

Hand Carved Wood

About the Tribe

Kwele Tribe

Mask

The Kwele occupy a great forest region on the borders of Gabon, Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. Their village communities comprised a number of lineages and were governed in the usual way for “headless” equatorial societies, that is in a diffuse and more or less informal manner.

To reinforce unity, the Kwele have the beete cult. The beete ritual, which lasts for a week, would open with the departure of men into the forest to hunt antelope, whose flesh, seasoned with medicines, had to be eaten at a meal at the closing ceremony. During the hunt, women and children stayed in the village; and after one or two days, ekuk masks would leave the forest, enter the village, and invite the people to come dance and sing. Ekuk means both protective forest spirit and children of beete. It displays a flat surface and often has a heart-shaped face, a triangular nose, coffee bean eyes, and a small or non-existent mouth. Such masks represents the antelope. The faces are usually painted in white kaolin earth, a pigment associated by the Kwele with light and clarity, the two essential factors in the fight against evil.

View all Kwele Tribe pieces

The Tradition

Masks of Africa

An African mask is made to be worn and danced. With a costume, music and movement, the carved face becomes a spirit or an ancestor, present for a time among the living.

Masks come out at the most important moments in the life of a village: funerals, harvests, and the ceremonies that mark young people becoming adults. They are worn by members of a society that keeps the mask, its dances and its meaning. Some masks are sacred, and others are made purely to entertain.

Each people has its own language of form. The Mossi and Bwa of Burkina Faso carve tall plank masks painted with bold patterns. Among the Dogon of Mali, masks are danced at the dama, the ceremony that ends mourning and sends the soul of the dead to join the ancestors. The Dan of Liberia and Ivory Coast give form to the spirits of the forest.

Every mask is carved by hand from a single piece of wood. Many are finished with paint, white clay, fiber, cloth, shells or metal, and the marks of use and age are part of the piece.

African masks helped change modern art. In Paris in 1907, Pablo Picasso studied African sculpture while painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the faces in it draw on African masks.

Today many people display a mask on an elegant stand at home or in the office, where a single piece gives a room character and a sense of the wider world.

We have proudly carried African masks in New York City since 1983.

Worn at: Funerals, harvests and initiations
Made from: Wood, often with paint, clay, fiber, cloth, shells or metal
Made for: Ceremony, dance and storytelling

A Bwa plank mask dancer in a fiber costume in Burkina Faso

A carver shaping a wooden mask with a mallet and chisel

A person seated wearing a tall carved mask, a mask hung on the wall behind

Some masks in our collection

Burkina Faso

Mossi

Tall masks with an antelope face and a plank above, tied to a clan and its founding animal

Burkina Faso

Bwa

Painted plank masks that show flying spirits, danced at funerals, harvests and initiations

Mali

Dogon

Danced at the dama, the ceremony that ends mourning and guides the dead to become ancestors

Gabon and Cameroon

Fang

Long pale faces made for the ngil society, which once acted as police and judges

Liberia and Ivory Coast

Dan

Masks that give form to forest spirits, with each performer called to his mask in a dream

Ivory Coast

Guro

Finely carved faces, often crowned with horns or a crest

Gabon and Congo

Kwele

Heart shaped faces with narrow eyes, carved to bring well being to the village

Ivory Coast and Ghana

Nafana

Large painted Bedu plank masks, danced during the Bedu festival

View all masks

Kwele Mask

Cameroon

Kwele Tribe

Surfaces

Pedestal

Styled with and outdoors

Rooms

Masks of Africa

Kwele Mask

Cameroon

Kwele Tribe

Surfaces

Pedestal

Styled with and outdoors

Rooms

Masks of Africa

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