Kifwebe face mask

Used by society Bwadi Bwa Kifwebé is the best known mask, in its male and female versions. Kifwebé means simply “mask”, mask used by Bwadi society Bwa who exercised a religious and political power and was responsible for the social order. The face is completely crossed by linear, parallel scarifications, dominating the red and white, the white color signifying purity. The mouth It is always rectangular, the nose elongated and triangular. The eyes, grooved but framed in a large arcade formed by the upper eyebrow. The female mask, which is named after Kikashi, presents a rounded and smooth skull while the male one carries a crest more or less large that goes down from the skull and melts with the nose.

Former mask made of very light wood, of white dominant polychrome, in which linear scarifications form two distinct sets: one quadrangular, with parallel horizontal lines, occupying the central part of the mask and another peripheral whose lines follow the undulations of the mask.