Mask (ndeemba)
Unknown Artist
early 1900s
Medium
Wood, raffia, paint, and cotton
Dimensions
h. 47 cm
Classification
Mask
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Katherine C. White
Accession Number
1969.8
About this artwork
This Mask (Ndeemba) 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 (n-khanda) 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 newl...