Helmet Mask (Lipiko)

Incarnating ancestral spirits, Makonde helmet masks appear in dances that celebrate the conclusion of initiation rituals for adolescent boys and girls. In this darkbrown male example, real human hair has been applied to the skull in irregular patterns that imitate a once-fashionable hairstyle. Its other lifelike characteristics include angular scarification marks and chipped teeth. The artist’s proper name— Diteka—is inscribed in Swahili on the mask’s cheek.