Janus mask with costume, Woyo or Vili culture

The mask shown here is exceptional in different respects. It was collected around 1880 and is a so-called Janus mask: it has a face on both sides and comes with a complete costume made of raffia. The mask and costume are decorated with various coloured feathers, probably from the turaco (dark blue), a white-tailed sea eagle (black) and a hornbill (blackwhite). The stylized faces are approximately 38 cm high and painted in sections of basic colours – white, orange and black, partly applied as dots and stripes. There are only a few known examples of this type of mask, and these were largely collected via the same source, that is via (employees of) the New African Trade Association. The Museum of Ethnography in Leiden and the World Museum Rotterdam each have two. Other examples can be found in the Museu Nacional de Etnologia in Lisbon and the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. The masks also originate from the area around the trading posts of the New African Trade Association on the coasts of Cabinda and the Congo.

The masks are attributed to the Woyo or Vili, two related population groups, both of which are a part of the former Kingdom of Kongo and both living in the delta area of the Congo River. According to Anema, the original collector of a similar mask, the mask was extremely old and ‘is used to track down the place where rain will fall if it has not rained fora long time. It originates from the district around the Massabe River’.

In all probability, these masks were worn by members of the ndunga society, which worked in the service of the king or family chief, but in the last instance in the service of the most important earth spirits, the nkisi nsi. In both cases, the bandunga (plural) ensured the maintenance of the social and natural order. The territory of the Woyo and Vili peoples was an area where tensions predominated at the end of the 19th century. These were tensions between individuals and between neighbouring peoples in an area where boundaries were unclear and in a region with fluctuating commercial traffic. These tensions rose sharply due to the increasing influence of Europeans, which resulted in the seizure and partitioning of the area by the Portuguese (Cabinda) and the Belgian King, Leopold II (The Congo Free State) in 1885. In this environment, the ndunga masks came into action to track down violators of rules and laws – sorcerers, thieves, murderers – but also to identify the causes of drought or the failure of harvests. The harmony in the society was directly linked to the welfare and fertility of the earth itself. The masks acted, if necessary, to carry out punishment and in this sense served as a feared type of secret police. Generally, a ndunga group consisted of nine masks that probably had individual names.

A postcard of one of the few surviving photographs, taken by Robert Visser, on which a ndunga mask appears mentions an ‘Exécution’ (execution). The mask wearer carries a sword as a symbol of his function. Visser was a plantation manager for the same trading company and between 1882 and 1904 stayed at different locations in the Lower Congo area – the same period in which the mask was collected. In 1898, the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin acquired a specimen that had been collected by Visser. The last masks were observed among the Vili people in the 1970s. Among the Woyo they can still be seen, but the original significance has largely been lost. There are known photographs of Woyo masks that were taken in the 1950s. In this period, the voluminous costumes were made from banana tree leaves. By this time, the mask still mostly had a religious significance, though its role in policing had disappeared. It can be assumed that this function was suppressed under the colonial government. A shift in purpose, perhaps, explains how it was possible for Dutch traders such as Anema to obtain a number of these respected masks. Another possibility is that the masks were produced directly for the Western buyers. The evidence supporting this theory is the remarkably good condition in which all the known masks are in. The short time span in which they were collected and the noticeable stylistic similarities between the various masks might suggest a single artist or workshop.

Wijs, S. An exceptional mask. From: Faber, P., S. Wijs & D. van Dartel, 'Africa at the Tropenmuseum'. Amsterdam: KIT Publishers, 2011. p.96-97.

circa 170cm (66 15/16in.)

Source: collectie.tropenmuseum.nl