{"id":35036,"date":"2026-11-03T08:23:54","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:23:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/?page_id=35036"},"modified":"2026-11-03T08:23:54","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T07:23:54","slug":"pende-masks-mbangu-mbuya","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/pende-masks-mbangu-mbuya\/","title":{"rendered":"Pende masks: Mbangu and mbuya characters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MFE-1, MFE-2, MFE-3 and MFE-4 share a reference to illness in their catalogue titles. A chief\u2019s mask and another named Mboyo provide different entries into the repertoire attributed to the Pende. All six records retain their names, measurements, materials and photographs.<\/p>\n<p>The Mbangu description in MFE-3 connects facial expression with a historical reading of illness and health. It is presented here as a catalogue interpretation, rather than a diagnosis. The different views and complete text allow that account to be compared with the individual objects.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>Documented context<\/h2>\n<p>The Met describes mbuya masks and raffia costumes in Pende performances that can entertain and inspire fear. It notes that these performances also express social and power relationships. This broadens the context without assigning every mask the same character or use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"small\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.metmuseum.org\/art\/collection\/search\/311023\" rel=\"noopener\">The Metropolitan Museum of Art \u00b7 Gikhokho (pendant mask)<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Reading the catalogue<\/h2>\n<p class=\"document-attribution\">Original historical document in Spanish<\/p>\n<blockquote lang=\"es\">\n<p>La bicrom\u00eda, blanco y negro, hace referencia a la dualidad \u201cenfermedad \u2013 salud\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"small\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/coleccion\/mbangu-illness-face-mask-mfe-3\/\">Jes\u00fas Arrimadas Saavedra \u00b7 original catalogue \u00b7 MFE-3<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"small\">This quotation retains the archive\u2019s wording. Editorial context and comparative sources do not certify the objects\u2019 attribution, age or provenance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MFE-1, MFE-2, MFE-3 and MFE-4 share a reference to illness in their catalogue titles. A chief\u2019s mask and another named Mboyo provide different entries into the repertoire attributed to the Pende. All six records retain their names, measurements, materials and photographs. The Mbangu description in MFE-3 connects facial expression with a historical reading of illness [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-35036","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35036"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35036\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35066,"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/35036\/revisions\/35066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artedeafrica.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}