Sande Society - Iconography of The Mende Helmet Mask

Iconography of The Mende Helmet Mask

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" (Dubinskas 1976:1). 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" (Day 1988:69).

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 (Dubinskas 1976:23-32, and see Boone 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" (ibid:2).