The Chokwe animal masks are less well-known than the well-liked ‘beautiful maiden masks’ (Mwana pwo), or the ‘chieftain masks’ (Cihongo), with their broad and rounded goatees. There exist, however, among the Chokwe also bird and monkey masks, and pig ones, such as this ‘Ngulu’ mask. They are mostly encountered together with the mask of the beautiful maiden (Mwana pwo) and represent an aspect of the untrammelled, unpredictable and wild side of nature. The present ‘Ngulu’ pig mask is made of hard, light-coloured wood, coloured on the outside black and brown. A red band straps over the animal’s snout. The presentation is naturalistic branded on both cheeks with two round, slightly raised marks and with a British colonial coin embedded on the forehead between the ears. Above, towards the back, and bound up in stripes of fabric, are hung extravagant trappings: glass pearls, 3 brass casts — all designed to create a cover for the back of the dancer’s head. Pig masks such as this were worn high up on the head allowing the dancer to see through the bast-fibre cloth that was attached underneath to both sides of the mask. The present 'Ngulu' pig mask is a beautiful example of the Chokwe people’s animal masks. Displaying good, old usage patina on the outside as well as on the inside (where the mask rests on the dancer’s head). A small tear on the red lower lip of the snout. Otherwise no damage. H: c. 20 cm (without trappings); W: 19 cm, L: 32 cm. First half of the 20th century. (ME)

Provenance: German Private Collection.

Lit.: 'Escultura Angolana' by Marie-Louise Bastin, catalogue of the Museu Nacional de Etnologia, Lissabon 1994, ill. 165 (a nearly identical piece, not impossibly made by the same carver); 'La Sculpture Tshokwe' by Marie-Louise Bastin, ill. 37; 'Chokwe!' by Manuel Jordan, ill. 81, 82; 'Chokwe and their Bantu Neighbours' by Jean David & Gerhard Merzeder, ill. 49.