The Punu people in Gabon wear the Okuyi or Mukudji mask that means Female mask. The female mask represents feminine beauty. It has elegant coiffure, rounded forehead, arched eyebrows, and almond shaped eyebrows, narrow face, small chin and a sculptured line that represents a chain of jewelry. It is also made of wood and pigment. Only the men that have obtained the power from the spirits can perform their spectacular dance on six-foot tall stilts. This mask represents the feminine beauty that for the Punu people, feminine beauty is associated with the whiteness of the spirit world. (Caleb) Some masks represent nice things like feminine beauty and other masks represent not very nice thing like death, but they both represent things that are very important in these African tribes.
The Mwana Rwo mask from the Chockwe people in Zaire and Angola has a shape of a deceased person. It has sunken eyes, gaunt face and tears that represent the painful experience of the loss through death; it is made of wood and pigment. Dancers perform in the villages during the initiation period, when newly circumcised boys are seduded for instruction in the initiation lodges. The performance is supposed to bring fertility to the women. It also teaches good manners to the spectators. This performance reminds the boys in the initiation ceremony that death is part of the initiation experience of death and rebirth; it also idealizes the feminine values. (Caleb) Initiation ceremonies are very important in some African tribes so these tribes make masks for the ceremonies; masks are used only for important things. The Songye people think they are partly human, animal and spiritual so their masks look like that. .
The Kitwebe mask from the Songye people in Zaire has an abstract face. The Songye people think they are partly human, animal and spiritual; so their masks are like that. The mask has powerful features that are like parts of some animals.
