Punu Mask, Gabon

okuyi
height 12 1/4in (31cm)

Provenance
French Private Collection

Exhibited
Schwaz, Austria, Gabun - Die Kunst, Die Aus Den Wälder, Haus der Völker, Museum fur Kunst un Ethnographie, 21 January - 20 May 2007

Iris Hahner notes, okuyi masks are worn to entertain on festive occasions. "Only rarely do the masqueraders fulfill a ritual function of officiating at funerals, when they dance as embodiments of the spirits of female and male ancestors. In performances the dancers, wearing costumes of raffia or cotton fabric and animal pelts, move with amazing agility on stilts up to six and a half feet in height."

Hahner continues to note that okuyi masks represent "an idealized female face. This is indicated by the scale-like scarification patterns on the forehead and temples, each consisting of nine dots arranged in a square or diamond, which, according to field researchers, have a sexual connotation. Another sign of female gender is its coiffure. With hair piled high on the head and arranged in two braids at the sides, this coiffure recalls the hair style used by women in this region at the beginning of the twentieth century." (Hahner, Iris, Maria Kecskesi and Lazlo Vajda, African Masks - The Barbier-Mueller Collection, Prestel, 2007, plate 75)