page_title: Sande society
section_title: Iconography of the Mende/Vai helmet mask
hierarchical_section_title: Sande society / Unique masking traditions in Liberia / Iconography of the Mende/Vai helmet mask
caption_attribution_description: English: Wooden helmet mask of a human head. Its neck is enlarged with rolls of fat. There are holes around the base for attachments. The eyes are coffee bean in shape with slits through their centers. Four verticle scarification marks appear under each eye. The elaborate headress consists of eight flap-like forms secured at the center with a band.The headdress is topped by a mushroom-like ornament with frets and other decorative work. Condition: A vertical crack runs from base of mask to head band at back center and includes a triangular 1 3/4 hole below band.
context_page_description: Sande, also known as zadεgi, bundu, bundo and bondo, is a women's initiation society in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast. The Sande society initiates girls into adulthood by rituals including female circumcision. It is alleged by its supporters to confer fertility, to instill notions of morality and proper sexual comportment, and to maintain an interest in the well-being of its members throughout their lives.
  In addition, Sande champions women's social and political interests and promotes their solidarity vis-a-vis the Poro, a complementary institution for men. The Sande society masquerade is a rare and perhaps unique African example of a wooden face mask controlled exclusively by women – a feature that highlights the extraordinary social position of women in this geographical region.
context_section_description: This type of mask, also often called bundu, is worn at initiation ceremonies celebrating a successful transition into womanhood. 
  In Mende society "the term sowo refers to both the supernatural entity which represents the women's secret society, and the masked dancer whose polished black anthropomorphic helmet mask and black raphia-covered body the spirit invests with its presence and power."
  In addition to the mask's appearance at girls' initiation ceremonies, sowo also "appears in public to mark important civic events such as the visits of important dignitaries and the coronations and funerals of important chiefs. On these occasions, her presence is a means of impressing on the community the unity and strength of the female corporate body as well as Sande's political significance."
  According to Dubinskas, the Mende say a finely carved sowo mask is nyande ("good," "pretty," "beautiful" and aesthetically "pleasing") when it includes the following elements, each of which has a symbolic meaning:
  Full forehead = Wisdom, intelligence
  Somnolent, downcast eyes = Modesty
  Shining black color = Mystery
  Neck rings = Health and prosperity (as well as the mask's mythic rise out of the water)
  Birds = Messengers between spirits and humans
  Cowries = Wealth
  White cloth = Ritual purity
  Fish, snakes, tortoises = The riverine home of sowo
  Antelope horns and lasimo (scripture) = "Good medicine" (hale nyande)
  Three-legged cooking pot = represents sowo as a repository of women's knowledge, and as a symbol of domesticity
  In addition, the mask's eyes should be slightly oversized (indicating knowledge and wisdom), while the mask's nose and mouth should be slightly smaller than human-sized (for a discussion of Mende feminine beauty).
  Dubinskas writes that the mask represents the ideals of womanhood and the ideal image of feminine beauty, an everywoman versus a woman of extraordinary power, desired by all but attained by an elite few. As such, the mask "embodies and mediates contradictions between traditional feminine role models in the society and the actual political and economic power which women do have access to, if not consistently, then at least regularly and generally enough for that power to call forth a significant symbolic focus in the ideological realm."
caption: Helmet mask (ndoli jowei) for Sande society; late 19th-early 20th century; wood; 39.4 x 23.5 x 26 cm (15​1⁄2 x 9​1⁄4 x 10​1⁄4 in.); Brooklyn Museum (New York City). A vertical crack runs from base of mask to head band at back center and includes a triangular 1​3⁄4 hole below band
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