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KubaBwoommask Masks may serve multiple purposes within the culture which creates them. For example the Bwoom mask of the Kuba culture of Africa serves as ceremonial marker of rites of passage, theater prop, artifact of individual expression, and delineator of its owner/wearer's wealth and social status.
Organized into a federation of chiefdoms, the almost 200,000 Kuba are a diverse group of over eighteen different peoples unified under the Bushong king The Kuba live in the Lower Kasai region of central Zaire in a rich environment of dense forest and savanna.
Mask making was first introduced by the women in the tribe who carved faces on calabash, a type of gourd. These faces were the first ways that the Kuba people used masks. After demonstrating techniques to the men of the tribe, the women were no longer needed in the production process because the men took over the art form. The Kuba call themselves "the children of Woot“—after their founding ancestor Once the men took hold of the mask making process they created male uses for the mask.
This mask, with its bulging forehead, represents the evil brother, Bwoom, in a ritual reenactment of Kuba mythological origins and royal power struggles. Bwoom symbolically speaks for the common man.
The nostril holes in the mask were eye holes, this made the mask sit on top of the head making the wearer larger than everyone around him and signifying his importance to the Kuba culture.
