African Masks

• African masks were a very important part of the African Culture, although masks are a lot less common now, then it was in earlier times.
• Masks are usually made of materials like: wood, cloth, dried leaves, or even animal fur. For decoration, Africans used things such as; bird feathers, dried grass, paint, and twigs. The type of material used really depends on what the Africans were trying to represent. Usually the Africans were trying to represent humans, important animals in their culture, mythical creatures, or gods/goddesses that they believed in. 
•  People think that masks are used as a disguise, or a costume, like on Halloween. But Africans wore their masks in ceremonies.

• The ceremonies were held to honor the dead, gods/goddesses, animals, and even important people in their society like the king.

• Masks were never played with. This was because Africans believed that masks were very powerful. 

Image Above: http://www.thewaronterra.com/kazdrums/images/mask_african1.jpg

• There are many ethnic groups that used them. Some of them are: Fang, Punu, Dogon, Kuba, Bamba
  
  
  • Cora, Yoruba, Igboo, and the Woyo. The most important tribe is the Igbo tribe. They had the largest variety of masks.
   
   
   
   Click to view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eckCUEo0jHw

 Source:

• http://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view?back=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dafrican%2Bmasks%26sado%3D1%26ei%3Dutf-8%26fr%3Dyfp-t-701%26fr2%3Dsg-gac&w=408&h=432&imgurl=www.mariposamuseum.org%2Fafrican_artifacts%2F147KEWDelyssa%2Fmask_african1.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mariposamuseum.org%2Fafrican_artifacts%2F147KEWDelyssa%2FAfricaMariposa.html&size=32KB&name=African+masks+we...&p=african+masks&oid=903d56169efdba38926078a37d74ac41&fr2=sg-gac&no=2&tt=49500&sigr=12hir1u02&sigi=128b1mc1a&sigb=1348qpk9a
• http://www.birdart.org/images/Original-African-mask.JPG