The Kuba encompass seventeen to nineteen different groups of people, including the Bushoong, Ngeende, Shoowa, Ngongo, Bieeng, Idiing, Ilebo, Kel, Kayuweeng, Kete, Ngombe, Bokila and Kaam. Generally, all these groups share a common cultural orientation despite some variation in terms of origin myths, ritual and aesthetic traditions, and language. Bushoong is claimed to be the common language of the Kuba. The Bushoong are the leading community among the Kuba, who are united under a common leader or king (nyim). The king has always come from among the Bushoong population.
Like many Kuba masks, this one is also multicoloured. The same type of feather headdress as that worn by persons of high social status was usually attached to the top of the mask. The authority over the common people and the young that was accorded to older and high-ranking persons was confirmed through initiation rituals.
The mask has the eyes of a chameleon
The conical shape of the eyes and the protruding pupils are characteristic of this type of mask. As the picture shows, the eyes are surrounded by small holes to enable the wearer of the mask to see out through this ritual ‘face.’ Overall, the eye shape of the mask aims to engender associations with a chameleon. The chameleon is particularly known for being able to see in all directions simultaneously; in other words, it has a full overview of what is happening where, and who is doing what. The association with the chameleon is understandable, given that the mask incarnates an old wise man who is consulted by other dancers at any given time during ritual dances.
This type of mask is always used in connection with male initiation rituals, particularly among the Bushoong and Ngeende peoples. However, initiation rituals are performed rather infrequently among the Kuba people – only every fifteen or twenty years. However, the mask depicted is not used solely in connection with the initiation of young men, but much more frequently; it also appears during burial rituals for men who have been initiated.
The role of the mask in the Batende secret society
Particularly among the Bushoong, the association between wisdom, knowledge, and what the mask expresses is also demonstrated by the fact that it is worn by members of the Batende secret society when performing their most important social task, that of identifying members of the community who commit criminal acts.
The competence and knowledge required to become an old wise man or member of the Batende is imparted to men through an initiation ritual, in the context of which the mask plays a significant role. Among the Kuba people, secret knowledge is gradually imparted to men in stages by means of this type of ritual, the primary purpose of which is to transmit knowledge that subsequently will only be held and used by initiated men. During various dance sequences in this ritual, the leader wears the pwoom itok mask. By putting on the pwoom itok, the wearer confirms his social status – it is he who has the all-encompassing knowledge and ability that the others must still strive to comprehend. The knowledge is conveyed through dance and bodily postures in combination with orally performed rhyme, rules and recitations that the participants in the ritual must interpret to the best of their ability. Only in this way will they be able to achieve an extraordinary insight into human and physical nature, and through this process they will one day count themselves among the wise. By way of initiation rituals, young men are also trained in craft skills and learn which types of plant-based materials and magical ingredients are required in order to be able to construct meaningful ritual artefacts, dance costumes and masks, such as the one in the picture.
The history of the pwoom itok mask as part of the museum’s collection
The mask presented here (catalogue number 18138) is part of the ethnographic collection at the Museum of Cultural History. The mask is 32.5 cm in length and is made of straw and other plant-based material such as wood, feathers and hessian. The mask or ‘face’ is painted red and decorated in white with some lines of black dots. The beard is made of straw, while a feather headdress and a sheet of hessian are stretched over thin reeds, which, according to the text, ‘are intended to be fastened over the back of the head.’
The original information accompanying the mask when it first arrived at the museum is limited. What we know for certain is that this mask was donated to the Ethnographic Museum in 1910 by Judge Otto Krogh. Krogh had worked for the Belgian administration in Congo and had presumably brought this mask as well as other artefacts with him on his return to Norway. The museum catalogue states that the mask is from Kasai in Congo and that it belonged to a ‘fetish priest.’
In other words, the information about the mask and its uses is limited, to say the least. It is difficult to know what the designation ‘fetish priest’ is meant to indicate, or whether Judge Otto Krogh himself was entirely clear as to what type of mask he had brought back to Norway with him and later donated to the University’s ethnographic collections, together with a number of other artefacts from the Congo.
Nevertheless, the text of the catalogue defines the wearer of the mask as a ‘fetish priest’ without our knowing what this title implies or what is considered to be the mask’s potential. In 1910, the designation ‘fetish priest’ presumably appeared to be meaningfully linked to the tradition of knowledge and cosmology on the African continent. At that time, everything that came from the African continent was often associated with something ‘mystical, magical, dangerous and superstitious.’ The general public in Europe and Norway knew little of the people, society, cosmology or intellectual traditions of this complex continent. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why ‘mask belonging to a fetish priest’ was considered to provide sufficient information about a mask from Congo?
The Museum of Cultural History’s ethnographic collection of artefacts from the African continent is primarily a historical collection encompassing various types of object, also known as ethnographica. The collection includes masks, textiles, jewellery, weapons, ceramics, amulets, fetishes, ritual and medical accoutrements, ceremonial objects and various types of sculpture. In addition, the collection includes what could be considered market commodities and tourist souvenirs.
The composition of the African collection enables us to convey the social and cultural diversity of virtually the entire continent. Many of the artefacts in the collection are insufficiently documented, in particular the oldest objects. This makes it all the more interesting to trace the provenance of the artefacts: where they come from, the contexts in which they were used, their purpose as utilitarian objects and implements – and the mask that is the subject of this little narrative is just one example of what our storage rooms can offer.
References
Cornet, Joseph. 1993. «Masks Among the Kuba Peoples». In Face of the Spirit. Masks from the Zaire Basin, F.H. and C. Petridis, ed. Ethnografisch Museum: Antwerpen, pp. 129-143.
Binkley, David. A. 1987. «Avatar of Power: Southern Kuba Masquerade Figures in a Funerary Context», Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 57. No. 1, pp. 75-97.