Chimpanzee-human mask (so'o)
If you as a Muhemba saw anything like this frightening combination of forms coming out of the brush or on a path, in your panic you would not pause but run full blast in the opposite direction.
What appears as a smile on this face is a strange and horrible mouth to a Hemba audience. People flee from this disturbing character who shares traits with a chimpanzee. Unlike Westerners, the Hemba keep no such animals as pets and do not consider them to be friendly. So'o contributes confusion and some humor as a parody of wild behavior during funeral festivals. In performance, it is thoroughly perplexing.
As the so'o jingles noisily and disruptively, it makes a strange sight indeed: unlike humans and chimps, it has no arms. It not only has no gift of language, it has no ears to hear and utters no sound from its mouth, only from its bells. And often, if one looks closely, the terrifying so'o does not really even see from its eyes but through its mouth! People scatter in fright and consternation.
Wood
8 9/16 x 5 11/16 x 3 in. (21.8 x 14.5 x 7.6 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.870
Provenance: [Gallery K, Los Angeles, California]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1978; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
