Here we have a Songye Kifwebe style African wooden wall mask - partially painted- hand carved , 38cm high
Please note: the first image maybe an enhanced presentation image. For an accurate representation of condition, including any wear or age-related marks, please refer to the additional photographs provided. The Songye people, sometimes written Songe, are a Bantu ethnic group from the central Democratic Republic of the Congo. They inhabit a vast territory between the Sankuru/Lulibash river in the west and the Lualaba River in the east.
Many Songye villages can be found in present-day East Kasai province, parts of Katanga and Kivu Province.
The people of Songye are divided into thirty-four conglomerate societies; each society is led by a single chief with a Judiciary Council of elders and nobles (bilolo).
Kifwebe masks almost always have streaks (incised or painted) on their surface and they are sometimes round shaped (especially among the Luba). They were used in ceremonies of the Kifwebe secret societies where dances of the same name were performed, and the masks were then dressed with beards of long plant fibres attached to holes on the edges of the mask .
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