Ngil mask

This type of anthropomorphic mask was used by the men’s Ngil society, which still exists today. This secret society was responsible for initiations and fought against sorcery. Ngil is a rite of purifying fire symbolised by the gorilla, and its mask represents the power and strength conferred by the ancestor it embodies. The wearers of these masks appeared in villages at night by torchlight, in large groups. The face is painted with kaolin, a colour that evokes the ancestors’ power. The white colour of each mask embodies the spirit of a deceased person.

Ngil is a secret society with a judicial character, so judging is one of the most important functions of Ngil masks. They judge those guilty of wrongdoing and those responsible for crimes. Their main purpose was to prevent Beyem witches and sorcerers, possessed by evil spirits, from harming the population. Ngil is a Fang society above all lineages. Initiation into the Ngil society comprised prior physical and moral purification, followed by flagellation and a confession of crimes and violations of prohibitions. Initiates took part in a trial by ordeal before the ancestors’ relics, contained in the byeri, to which sacrifices were offered. This was the symbolic passage from an androgynous state to the sexually defined male state of adulthood. Ngil had its sacred place in a forest clearing called ésam, where large, vaguely human recumbent figures represented Ngil and his wife. Neophytes had to crawl before these effigies, passing over a pit where concealed warriors tried to wound them with their weapons. They also had to undergo the ordeal of the ants.

Only men could be initiated into Ngil, which was also used against harmful spells and poisoning, and protected its members. Ngnil always sought to restore social order and formed part of the rituals regulating life in traditional Gabonese communities.

After the ordeals in the sacred forest, the ritual continued in the village square at dawn or dusk. Armed with a sabre or a simple club, Ngil had to destroy the houses of neighbours in conflict with other members of the society. These enmities arose from adultery, theft or debts. The wearer of the mask had a deep voice that frightened women and children and commanded men’s respect.

These white masks with elongated faces were worn by notable members of their society. They are highly stylised, with fine, elongated features depicting the human face and giving the impression of an elongated heart, characteristic of this ethnic group. The eyes are barely open and the mouth is reduced to its simplest expression so that the voice emerges distorted and the wearer cannot be recognised.

This society was banned during the Colonization, in the year 1910for being the cause of absurd deaths and for opposing colonial authority.

A mask that perfectly outlines the elongated heart characteristic of Fang masks. Remains of white polychromy in the centre of the face and orange around its edge. Small openings allow the wearer to see; below them are eyes shaped as inverted semicircles, surrounded by a closed black circular arc, like the eyes. Black eyebrows with white lines. Facial scarifications in the form of an inverted V. A human-looking mouth. A continuous, S-shaped wavy line runs down the sides of the face. Local repairs in various places on the mask, which shows its age. An identical mask appears in most books about African art.