Penn Museum 115 Germany. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2002, p. 51, note 1). 7. For a short biography of Oldman, see Hermione Waterfield and J. C. H. King, Provenance: Twelve Collectors of Ethnographic Art in England 1760–1990. Paris and Geneva: Somogy Art Publishers; Barbier- Mueller Museum, 2006. 8. See the reprint of Oldman’s lists in W. O. Oldman, Illustrated Catalogue of Ethnographical Specimens. London: W. O. Oldman, 1976. 9. For more information on the Umlauff’s family activities, see Hilke Thode-Arora, “Die Familie Umlauff und ihre Firmen - Ethnographica-Händler in Hamburg.” In Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg, Neue Folge, Band 22, pp. 143–158. Hamburg: Hamburgischer Museum für Völkerkunde, 1992. 10. This expedition was organized by the Deutsche Inner- Afrikanische Forschungs-Expedition, DIAFE, an institution Frobenius created as a structure for his expeditions. This expedition, known as the “Congo- Kasai Expedition,” lasted from December 1904–May 1906. 11. On Torday and his collecting activities, see John Mack, Emil Torday and the Art of the Congo, 1900–1909. London: Published for the Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Publications, 1990. 12. About Torday’s stay in Philadelphia, see Torday-Gordon Correspondence, Office of the Director, University of Pennsylvania Museum Archives (UPMA). The University Museum, Philadelphia, PA, letters from September 1912 through July 1913; as well as “Notes,” in The Museum Journal, Vol. IV, No. 1, March 1913, p. 33. 13. The Penn Museum covered Torday’s travel expenses to Philadelphia and provided him with a monthly stipend of $150. 14. In particular “The New Congo Collection.” In The Museum Journal, op. cit., pp. 13–32. 15. Better known as the International Exhibition of Modern Art, it took place February 13–March 15, 1913, at the 69th Regiment Armory, New York City. FIG. 28: List of works sent by Charles Vignier to Marius de Zayas, intended for the Penn Museum. UMPA, Office of the Director, Correspondence Gordon-de Zayas, 1919. Photograph courtesy UMPA. FIG. 29 (right): Face mask. Songye people, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Wood, pigment. H: 38 cm. Ex coll. Charles Vignier, Paris, before 1919. Exhibited at the De Zayas Gallery in New York in 1919. Purchased from Charles Vignier, Paris, 1921 (AF 5115). Image courtesy of the Penn Museum, image #150520. Among the Songye people, face masks with geometric facial features and grooved surfaces are related to a male initiatory association called Bwadi bwa Kifwebe. As the association’s emissaries, the bifwebe (sing. kifwebe) maskers use their mystical powers based on the ideology of sorcery and witchcraft to maintain the political elite in office. The masks are composite incarnations of various “strange” beings. As such, they express an ambivalent identity of “otherness” and defy classification within the normal order of the universe. In addition to a human face, the masks contain references to numerous animals. Specifically, the striking striations imitate the fur, quills, or skin of striped creatures such as the zebra, the bushbuck, the porcupine, and a “horned” species of snake called ngulungu. For more information, see especially Dunja Hersak, Songye Masks and Figure Sculpture. London: Ethnographica, 1986. C.P.
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