Mask, Makonde or Makua; Mozambique/Tanzania
Wood, pigment, human hair; H. 9 1/2"
Bill Fagg has written the following
about this mask: "This mask is clearly from
the Makonde complex of tribe of Tanzania and Mozambique
(more probably the latter) and was probably made
between the two world wars. Its unusual features
(straight nose, rather naturalistic ears, disposition
of hair, absence of scarification, etc.) are probably
due to its having been intended as a caricature
of an Arab, perhaps a slaver. This may also explain
the representation of the hair by pieces of monkey
fur, instead of the insertion of tufts of human
hair with a knife; however monkey fur is used at
least on one old mask which clearly represents a
Makonde (see Hol´y, Masks and figures from
Eastern and Southern Africa, 1967, plate 71).
Such representations of Arabs are very rare.
