Mende / Bassa Female Helmet Mask, Sierra Leone / Liberia #891 morganite smooth rounds 12mm strand D: 3" long

D: 3" long

Approx 49" long

Publisher: Kent Gallery

Unchanging and Formless

Mende / Bassa Female Helmet Mask, Sierra Leone / Liberia #891 morganite smooth rounds 12mm strand D: 3" longMende Bassa Sowei Helmet Mask, Sierra Leone Liberia #891 Sowei Mask used by the exclusively female Sande (Mende) or Bondo Bundu (Temne) Societies. In sub Saharan Africa, traditionally only men are permitted on Ritual Occasions to dance wooden masks. The practice of Women wearing masks seems to have been brought to several populations of Sierra Leone and Liberia, such as the Temne, Gola and Vai, by the Mende and Mande speaking People from the Northern