Object Details
- Label Text
- Sowei masks are danced by members of the Sande women's society in Sierra Leone. All Mende girls join this society at puberty. Sowei appears in public during the time when young girls are initiated into adulthood. It may also emerge at the crowning of a paramount chief or during the funeral ceremonies of a paramount chief.
- Mende carvers, always men, studied and copied old masks. Sowei masks share specific stylistic features. Carved in the form of a helmet, they depict a female head with an elaborate hairstyle and a ringed neck. All sowei are stained black. This mask exhibits all these elements and in addition has representations of a three-legged iron cook pot inverted on the head.
- Description
- Wood helmet mask of a female head with inverted three-legged iron cauldron surmounting it. Face has eyes in U or crescent slits, small mouth and diminutive triangular nose. Black dye is worn to wood in places. Holes are pierced around the bottom perimeter of the mask for attachment of a fiber costume.
- Provenance
- Warren Robbins, Washington, D.C., -- to 1972
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Mende artist
- Date
- Mid-late 20th century
- Credit Line
- Gift of Warren M. Robbins
- Medium
- Wood, pigment
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 36.5 x 21.4 x 22.9 cm (14 3/8 x 8 7/16 x 9 in.)
- Type
- Mask
