Spirit Returned from the World of the Dead Mask (Ngontang)
Looking in different directions, the multiple faces on this mask imply a heightened vision and ability to see beyond this world into the next. The white faces are painted with kaolin, a fine white clay which is used for its protective and curative properties on ritual occasions. Some authors say these faces represent white women who were encountered during the colonial era and made a strong impression on the Fang. James Fernandez an anthropologist who has conducted extensive research among the Fang calls this mask “the daughter of the white man." He accounts for it's emergence after World War II when it became a reinterpretation of the sudden appearance of an old Fang forest spirit. Recently, an Ngontang masquerader staged a sudden and dramatic performance to punish transgressors.
Mininga a ne ana nsinga lan ntangun. (A woman is like the wick of a lantern.) That is, if you raise her in your respect she will shine upon you, but if you lower and deprecate her she will leave you in the dark.
Wood, feathers, raffia, pigment, metal
33 1/16 x 11 x 11 13/16 in. (84 x 28 x 30 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.781
Provenance: [Furman Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1974; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
