Sickness Mask

These types of masks with deformed faces are known as sickness masks. These masks were normally used by healers and sorcerers in their healing sessions of the sick. The deformed face of the so-called masks of disease represents in African art the effects of an epileptic crisis that is supposedly a manifestation of the spirits. The opposition of the white color (color of the spirits of death) from half the face to the other black mean (symbol of diseases and handicaps) is also the image of the combat between good and evil.

This mask features two long, deformed noses and two small mouths, one on the edge of the blue and white zones and the other on horseback between the white and red zones. The central part of his face is white, with a blue cheek on his right and a blackened red cheek on his left. The forehead, noses and mouths are black. The edge of the head is surrounded by a dark, dirty red fabric tied with ropes forming a kind of elongated loop. And over a piece of red cloth and the rest a sort of sackcloth with black stripes. These fabrics are intended to cover your head completely.