Sigi mask
The Sigi festival, held in honour of ancestors is particularly remarkable, held every sixty years, it lasted for 3 months. The women’s role was to make the clothes for the dancers (to weave cowrie shells into cotton for e.g.) and they are generally excluded from participating in the masquerades (same status as the uninitiated). The Kanaga mask appears at the Dama festivals as well as the Sigi (see Kananga mask 1997.39). I’m a bit surprised because the lower section (‘ground’) normally points downwards rather than here (and the above mask) point upwards. I don’t know why this is… is this a ‘tap’ mask??
