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GALWA MASKS 103 FIG. 18 (left): Mask. Galwa, Gabon. Wood, vegetable fi ber, kaolin, charcoal. H: 42 cm. St. Gallen Museum, inv. VKC 0872. FIG. 19 (above): Mask. Galwa, Gabon. Wood, vegetable fi ber, kaolin, red ocher, charcoal. H: 35 cm. Ex Gertrud Koch. Sotheby’s, London, 27 June 1994, lot 78. Private collection. © Vincent Girier Dufournier. FIG. 20 (right): Mask. Galwa, Gabon. Wood, vegetable fi ber, kaolin, red ocher, charcoal. H: 28 cm. Ex Benziger. Private collection, Geneva. © Studio Diane Bouchet. gle just above the eyebrows and tied behind the head. They wore a few turquoise or imitation gold beads around their necks and some carried silk parasols. SECRET SOCIETIES The Galwa adopted the okukwe, or yassi, secret society from the neighboring Pove and Masango peoples. The yassi (also yaci or yasi) was mentioned by both Alfred Aloysius “Trader” Horn and the Marquis de Compiègne in connection with the funerary rites for Nkombe after his death in late 1873. In 1895, Father Léon Lejeune wrote that the yassi was a malefi cent spirit that inhabited the forest and had to be appeased with dances, masquerades, and libations. It was the terror of children, slaves, and women. More than one person was assassinated for having mocked him or for having uttered his name. He was represented by a young masked man shrouded in a fi ber tunic and holding a sword or an axe. When the slit drum was sounded, he would appear and dance in the center of a group of initiates singing in cadence, and the women and children would hide in the houses. The yassi would locate a victim that had been designated beforehand, who would then be taken to the forest and killed. For centuries, the yassi made it possible to preserve Galwa law and customs and to keep Galwa women, slaves, and children in a state of subordination and obedience. There were different grades in this society: epowe, eyoga, and konou. The diffi cult initiation, which took the form of bullyings and harassment, was undergone by a boy beginning at puberty and was complete when a tattoo was applied to his arm or his wrist.22 In fact,


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