Mask Gon. Kwele, Gabon.

Gon mask. Kwele, Gabon, first half of the twentieth century.
In carved wood.
Provenance: Primitive Art Gallery. European Private Collection.
Measurements: 25 cm. high.

The Kwele people are a tribal group from eastern Gabon, the Republic of Congo and Cameroon in West Africa. The masks are associated with the Beete association, which maintains social order, and are also used in initiation rites and at the end of mourning periods. Intended to represent benevolent spirits of the forest, the masks represent people or animals, or a combination of the two. Many lack eye slits; the masks are displayed rather than worn, and many are painted with white kaolin earth, which the Kwele associate with light and clarity. In the bee ritual they perform, there is a gorilla-masked person (Gabon) as the opposition to the Ekuk mask.