Bwoom mask

unrecorded Kuba artist, artist

Bwoom mask, 1900s

Where object was made: Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo)

Material/technique: beading; wood; carving; goat hair; cowrie shell; stamping; raffia cloth; metal; plant fiber

Dimensions:
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 49 x 24 x 29 cm height includes beard flap
Object Height/Width/Depth (Height x Width x Depth): 19 5/16 x 9 7/16 x 11 7/16 in

Credit line: Gift of Jill Zinn

Accession number: 2007.2959

Not on display

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Masquerade plays a pivotal role in many African dances and rituals, ensuring the survival of cultural heritage and history for future generations. During masquerades, performers are possessed in bouts of spiritual transformation as they transmit cultural information to participants and viewers.
Makishi dancers, donning large, geometrically patterned masks, emerge from the bush during the mukanda rite of passage, where young boys are guided into adulthood through isolation, instruction, and ritual circumcision. During the masquerade performances of the Kuba, dancers most often portray one of three separate identities, including Bwoom, a contentious figure who presents a subversive force within Kuba social order. Bwoom, embodied by this beaded mask, is the first masquerade character young male initiates are permitted to see and, eventually, perform.