Female Dance Headdress (D'mba/Yamban)

"This impressive carving represents a ritual mask of the Baga, one of three main tribes that inhabit the Atlantic coast of southwestern Guinea. Worn by members of the dominant Simo secret society, it depicts the spirit Nimba, goddess of increase and fecundity.

An embodiment of the goddess and of “mother earth,” the Nimba mask was associated both with human procreation and the fertility of the fields. According to nineteenth-century accounts written by travelers in the region, the mask was carried about in the marshes and tall grasses of the Baga rice paddies. A potent fertility symbol, the goddess Nimba was also invoked by infertile women in the Simo society. The headdress, in fact, represents an idealized female figure; the long, flat, pendulous breasts identify her as a mature woman who has given birth to many children and has nurtured them to adulthood.

The Nimba mask was the most monumental of ritual African masks, towering eight feet above the ground when worn over a Baga dancer's shoulders."