Mask Kidumu O Lekoka

The masks of this group are round and flattened. They are linked to the creation of the world and have a cosmogonic character. The dominant colors are red (paduk), black (coal) and white (caolin). The two semicircles are in different planes, separated by a horizontal median line in which two small holes are hidden to allow the vision of the carrier. The upper plane stands out. It is a mask of an abstract conception. Its forms and drawings are composed of balanced geometrical motifs. You can guess a human face with very stylized features with clear mastery of geometric drawings.

Despite being a flat mask the different sculpted symbols confer it a small relief. Quite complex symbols that, in the bateké cosmogony, represent the rainbow, the rising room of the moon and the sun, meaning the contour of the horizon line. It represents the moon by the arcs of circle that appear on the edge of its circumference and the sun when looking towards the sky, the feathers and ribbons of rafia, of the clothing of its bearer, that surround it give the impression of a radiant sun.

According to a tradition the first mask Kidumu was conceived and manufactured by the blacksmith Ngwaka Banzuru in the middle of the century XIX when it was impossible for him to find the masks of the ancestors as he had been commissioned. With the mask Kidumu wanted to reaffirm the strength of his group Teke Tsaye before the French repression, as most of his cults had been suppressed and his masks burned.

Covers by members of society Kidumu at weddings, funeral ceremonies of important members or at the reception of personalities and at any other important holiday. The purpose of this mask is to maintain social and religious cohesion.