Unfortunately most of the mainstream artistic output coming from the country of Tanzania is mass produced and has little or no tribal relevance. Beautiful as it might be the art has been coined as tourist art. It is unfortunate indeed because Tanzania is home to a wide variety of people that have a rich history and a deep rooted culture. One significant group are the MaKonde; famous for their smooth ebony art and towering intricate Tree of Life sculptures. The MaKonde as a people, before colonial times, lived in dispersed villages with each headed by a male thought to come from a common matrilineal line called likola. A likola was said to derive from a common female ancestor, revered as a life-giver and protector. According to legend, shortly after the Creation, the first man, sculpted a female figure out of wood, and the statue became a real woman who gave him many children. After her death, became the venerated ancestress of the Makonde.

The MaKonde hold two very important tribal ceremonies, month long initiations where girls and boys are provided with knowledge and skills essential to the Makonde way of life and secondly rituals that were thought to ensure the fertility of the fields and women. Basically three types of masks are used: the helmet variety known as Lipiko for the head, face masks which provide facial covering and the body masks which are worn over the torso. The telltale MaKonde characteristic is the use of human hair placed on top of the facial coverings and the culturally significant labret. The masks all have strong Negroid features with many proudly displaying a lip plate or labret. The wooden labret represents social status. True to form our older mask has all of the traditional attributes. This is a great used authentic mask. 

This mask dates around the late 20th century.

Please click photo for enlargement!

Dimensions: 10 inches tall x 6.5 inches across x 4.5 inches deep. 

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