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What are African masks made from?
African masks are considered to be one of the most admired and well-known art forms in Africa. There are many different materials used to make African masks such as: wood, bronze, brass, copper, ivory, glazed pottery, raffia and textiles. However, the most popular material used to make African masks is wood.
What does African masks look like?
African masks are most commonly shaped like a human face or a muzzle of some animal. Masks are highly stylized because African cultures distinguish between outer look of something and its essence. These masks are made to represent an abstract subject, which explains stylization.
Why are African masks used?
Traditional African masks play an important role in certain traditional African rituals and ceremonies. The wearer of the mask is often believed to be able to communicate to the being symbolized by it, or to be possessed by who or what the mask represents.
Why did the Africans wear masks?
Africa possesses a long tradition of masking and it is believed that masks were integral to their culture long before the first century B.C. The wide variety of uses for masks, which included rituals of myth, creation, and hero worship, as well as fertility rituals for increase, agricultural festivities, funerals or …
Why are masks so dangerous in African culture?
One of the most dangerous interior accessories are African masks. These objects of worship are originally for African culture and they are a contact of information from Spirits and after death forces. In fact, not all masks have negative energy. There are different types of masks – good spirits, spirits of the prophets, and evil spirits.
Where can you find tribal masks in Africa?
The full glory of African masks can be most felt in parts of Central Africa like the Democratic Republic of Congo, in West Africa, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria and in East Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania. The artistry behind the African tribal masks is best described as expressive and multifaceted and this makes African masks incredibly fascinating.
What are the different colours of African masks?
In most cases, mask-making is an art that is passed on from father to son, along with the knowledge of the symbolic meanings conveyed by these masks. African masks come in all different colours, such as red, black, orange, and brown.
What happens to the person who wears the mask?
In most traditional African cultures, the person who wears a ritual mask conceptually loses his or her human life and turns into the spirit represented by the mask itself.