Helmet mask (sowei)

The women's Sande society traditionally initiated Mende girls into womanhood by preparing them for marriage and family life and participation in religious rituals and teaching them the songs and dances they would have to perform. Similar to the boys' coming-of-age rites and ordeals, girls were excised. When they were deemed to be ready, the high-ranking teacher and leader (ndoli jowei) of the Sande society introduced them to the community as adult women (fig. 36). On this occasion, each ndoli jowei wore a voluminous raffia fiber costume and a wooden helmet mask that embodied sowei, the female water spirit which is the guardian deity of the Sande society. The masquerade presented "the idealized image of female perfection and power and also personifies the corporate interest and prestige of the female portion of the Mende community."(10)

Usually, African women do not wear masks. Men wear the masks and men carve them. The Mende model of women wearing masks is a rare exception that is shared with peoples in southern Sierra Leone and western Liberia who are bound by the multiethnic men's Poro association of which Sande (also known as Bundu) is the counterpart. The Dallas Sande society helmet mask is a venerable example of a mask that has changed very little since it was first described in an eighteenth-century travel book.(11) Wherever they are found, Sande society masks are always in the form of a helmet that fits closely over the wearer's head, and they depict a female wearing an elaborate hairstyle. The slits cut through the downcast eyes in a diamond-shaped face allow visibility. The eyes may also be placed along the edge of the mask. The small mouth can be closed or slightly open. The wide rings around the neck and holes along the edge are for attaching the raffia costume.

Each of these elements is significant. The elaborate hairstyle, for example, is carefully detailed and reflects current fashion. Downcast eyes are associated with modesty and the nonhuman essence of the spirit that inhabits the mask. The wide rings on the neck are usually interpreted as rings of fat and signify fertility. Another interpretation is that the rings are the "recognition of the natural and desirable pattern of biological growth in adolescent girls in preparation for childbearing that entails the increase in body fat-a pattern that is also well documented in Western medicine."(12) The mouth is closed or slightly open to signify silence and inner spiritual concentration. The lustrous black pigment or paint staining the mask is a reference to the river-dwelling spirit that inhabits the mask. Black, in the Mende language, means "wet" or "wetness."

Animal horns and an amulet carved in relief adorn this mask. Some masks display these objects as attachments that may be covered with gold or silver. Such horns in real life were stuffed with protective medicines. A long time ago, wealthy Mende women also wore pendant necklaces with silver-encased amulets containing Islamic inscriptions. The amulets were made by Muslim mori, or holy men, and expensive to obtain. Their attachment to or depiction on Sande society masks protected the dancer from malevolent forces while she performed. It was also an unmistakable sign of wealth.\

This mask is attributed to Manowulo, a Mende sculptor who was active from about 1935 until 1960 in the Baoma chiefdom located north of Jaiama-Bongor near the town of Bo. Many masks carved by Manowulo and his apprentices were still in use in the 1970s when the anthropologist Ruth B. Phillips conducted field research on Sande society masks among the Sewa-Mende. The sculptor's trademark style features a wide diamond shape, the upper half of which is framed by an inverted V or U and the lower half by a sharply angled jawline. The jawline of some of his masks is delineated by a border of parallel grooves into which the small mouth is placed at the point of the chin. Manowulo carved the ears at the lateral points of the facial diamond and gave them a C-shaped ridge with a raised round dot at the center of the opening. The eyes are long horizontal slits, and the nose is a long form that is slightly flared at the nostrils. He typically carved fine details of braids or other designs on the head. The hairstyle on this mask is obscured by the patina, but it is typical of what Mende women wore during the mid-twentieth century.(13)

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 38, pp. 130-133.

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NOTES:

10. Phillips, Ruth B. Representing Woman: Sande Masquerades of the Mende of Sierra Leone. Los Angeles: University of California, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995. p. 81.

11. Matthews, John. A Voyage to the River Sierra Leone. 1788. Repr. London: Frank Cass, 1966. Quoted in R. Phillips, 1995. pp. 16-18.

12. R. Phillips, 1995. p. 116.

Boone, Sylvia A. Radiance from the Waters: Ideals of Feminine Beauty in Mende Art. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1986. p. 100.

13. Ibid., 171. fig. 8.21 ab and 8.22 ab.

Ruth Phillips, personal communication, 8 July 2006.