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Maker(s):	Unknown
Culture:	African; Mende
Title:	Sowo Wui dance mask
Date Made:	early 20th century
Type:	Ceremonial
Materials:	Wood and silver
Place Made:	Africa; Sierra Leone
Measurements:	Overall: 16 1/8 in x 8 1/2 in x 10 1/4 in; 41 cm x 21.6 cm x 26 cm
Accession Number:	MH 2013.2
Credit Line:	Purchase with the Art Acquisition Endowment Fund
Museum Collection:	Mount Holyoke College Art Museum

Currently on view

Label Text:
This is not a free-standing, motionless artwork. Learning to look at a sowo wui requires imagining it in dance. Leaders of the Sande Society, a women’s social and political organization in Sierra Leone, wear masks like this one to embody the group’s founding deity, Sowo. Each element of this mask has multiple levels of symbolism. The neck rings represent health and wealth. The closed mouth suggests a dignified woman. The prominent ears honor both learning and sexual eroticism. The eyes, the most important body part, stare out from the center of this face, emphasized by stylized eyelids and brows.

-Amanda Gilvin, Assistant Curator, Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College (Sept. 2016)

Tags:
African; dance; dancers; indigenous people; masks; faces; hairstyles; rituals

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2013.2

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.