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Mask (ndeemba)
early 1900s
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
This <em>Mask (Ndeemba) </em>has been featured prominently in the African galleries since making its debut at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1962. Dated to the 1900s, the object is part of a group of eight masks that appear at the end of the circumcision and puberty ritual <em>(n-khanda) </em>for Yaka boys. It would have marked the new status of the boys who became men and commemorated their re-entry into the village. Affirming age-long tradition, such masks are worn by the master of the initiation or by the newly initiated himself.
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Details
- Title: Mask (ndeemba)
- Date Created: early 1900s
- Physical Dimensions: Overall: 47 cm (18 1/2 in.)
- Provenance: Robert Stolper, New York, Katherine C. White (Reswick), [1929-1980], Gates Mills, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Type: Mask
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.8
- Medium: Wood, raffia, paint, and cotton
- Department: African Art
- Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Yaka carver
- Credit Line: Gift of Katherine C. White
- Collection: African Art
- Accession Number: 1969.8
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