FEATURE 108 FIG. 11 (left): Helmet mask. Suku people, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood, raffia, pigment. H: 41.2 cm. Field collected by Leo Frobenius in the Congo Free State, c. 1905. Purchased from J. F. G. Umlauff, Hamburg, 1912 (AF 1870). Image courtesy of the Penn Museum. Helmet-shaped Suku masks typically show a carved coiffure decorated with a partly painted pattern of incised geometric motifs, a white-colored face with downcast eyelids, a mouth with chiseled teeth, and a thick fringe of raffia fibers. The bird-shaped superstructure most likely refers to folk tales, proverbs, and personal hunting exploits. Generically called hemba, such masks, worn with an elaborate costume consisting of a netted shirt and a fiber skirt, appeared primarily in the context of the initiation of young males into adulthood. Songs of mourning that accompanied the dance, as well as the white color of the face and the tears rendered on the cheeks, revealed a mask’s identity as a collective image of the departed. For more information, see especially Arthur P. Bourgeois, “Masques Suku.” Arts d’Afrique Noire 39 (1981), pp. 26–41. C.P. FIG. 12 (below): Anthropomorphic gourd stopper. Yaka people, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood. H: 12.7 cm. Field collected by Leo Frobenius in the Congo Free State, c. 1905. Purchased from J. F. G. Umlauff, Hamburg, 1912 (AF 684). Image courtesy of the Penn Museum. This is one of many such gourd stoppers that the German explorer and ethnologist Leo Frobenius acquired among the Yaka and related neighboring peoples along the Kwilu River in about 1905. The gourd that it would have closed off was possibly richly decorated with geometric and/or figurative incised patterns. Such gourds were used for the storage of palm wine, a popular beverage among many Congolese peoples until this day. Both the carved stopper and the decorated gourd would have signaled the good taste and accomplishments of its owner and user. C.P.
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