Sowei or Bundu mask

It's a helmet mask of the Mendebelonging to the Sandé women’s society and used by the women of the “bassa” people. It's one of the so-called Jano masks, double-sided. Janus, italic and Roman deity was king of Lazio. Saturo gave him the power to know the past and the future and was represented with two faces arranged in the opposite direction.

This is the only female society allowed to wear a mask during ceremonies. Men sculpt masks that are worn by women. Sandé society prepares young girls Mene for adult life. These masks dance when the girls leave the sacred forest in which they have remained three months of initiation during which they have learned the norms of coexistence and the necessary instructions for life and have suffered the excision. It's these masks that practice excision.

These masks are characterized by soft and balanced feminine features even if it is intended to represent spirits of male ancestors. They are always small, triangular faces. They usually present abundant neck folds, a feminine symbol of beauty and prosperity. The hairstyle consists of five hair crests below which, on both sides of the head, extends a symmetrical hairstyle of geometric lines and drawings.

Dark patina.