105 white (kaolin, pemba) and red (tukula) are associated with oppositional elements of the universe: the sun and the moon, man and woman, the body and blood, milk and sperm. Black is associated with justice, since the okuji mask’s role is to regulate social life when discussions have failed. The black or red opposed triangle motifs are complemented by bands of red or white. STYLISTIC VARIANTS Galwa masks have varying shapes. They can be fl at and oval with an overhanging forehead, convex with an oval face, or rectangular with rounded angles. The cultural marker is the black, red, or white triangles opposed on the forehead and the mouth. The black eyebrows can be rounded or elongated, and the eyes are more or less globular and colored with red ochre. They extend from the nose to the temples and have slit openings that protect the dancers from strong sun and improve their visual acuity. Some masks have a characteristic detail—a small circular mirror on the forehead that symbolizes the third eye. A photograph taken in 1903 by Father Henri Trilles27 shows a “Fang sorcerer of the Ngil society” wearing an okukwe-type mask with a black triangle on the forehead and a small circular mirror placed on a fi ber crown (fi g. 6). FIG. 22 (above): Mask. Galwa, Gabon. Wood, kaolin, red ocher, charcoal. H: 33 cm. Private collection. FIG. 23 (left): Plate VI from the text of Masques by Leo Frobenius showing a Galwa mask in the collection of the Museum für Völkerkunde in Hamburg. From Masques, Musée Dapper, p. 366, fi g. 51, plate VI. While all Galwa masks have a fi ne and geometrical nose, their mouths vary in shape and may be placed at different heights on the face. Some, with very fi ne lips, project forward, while others are crescent shaped. Still others, which are large and pointed at the corners, may cover the chin. Few Galwa masks have ears. NINETEENTH-CENTURY MASKS A very important mask, which was collected in 1820 and belonged to Stephen Chauvet, is displayed at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac (fi g. 3). It is 30 centimeters high and follows the Galwa archetype with opposed black triangles on the forehead and the lower face. The rest of the face is colored white and orange. These two colors have a contrasting effect. Small white spots represent stars (minanga). They embody the spirits from the other world, the “eyes of the dead.”28 Léo Frobenius represented similar scattered dots in a drawing of a Loango mask.29
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