Mask - Songyé / Drc

It is the wooded savannahs bordering the banks of the Lomami River in the DRC that will see the development of Songye clans and villages. They speak one of the Bantu dialects. Their cultural and linguistic traditions have many points in common with those of the Luba, such as the use of divinatory calabashes or caryatid seats. These Masks are generally worn during the major ceremonies of importance that the villages can experience. This kind of mask is very quickly recognizable by the stretched physical features of the faces that appear there and that can then be compared to "Kifwebe" productions. The angular mouth of the mask has a cross in the center of it and is typical of Songye productions. This very geometric aspect underlines the belonging of this mask to the Songye production, based on the exaggeration of human features, through their masks.