Skip to main content
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Nowo/Sowo/Zoba) - Image 1
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Nowo/Sowo/Zoba) - Image 2

Mende and Vai

Sande Society Helmet Mask (Nowo/Sowo/Zoba)

Mende/Vai, 1900-1932

Thumbnail 1
Thumbnail 2
Scroll

Sande Society Helmet Mask (Nowo/Sowo/Zoba)

Mende/Vai, 1900-1932

Physical Qualities Wood, fiber, 13 11/16 × 8 7/16 in. (34.8 × 21.5 cm.)
Credit Line Gift of the Jamosil Foundation, Alexandria, Virginia
Object Number 1989.153
When girls emerge from their period of training with the Sande society, their return to town is celebrated with singing, dancing, and a feast. The girls help each other with their hair and borrow silver jewelry from women in their family to prepare for the party. A girl with such a fashionable coiffure as the one on the mask in front of you would be the envy of all her friends. Sande masks representing older women, however, have more classic hairstyles. Both the five-lobe hairstyle to the left and the four-part hairstyle to the right, called “mouse under a bushel basket,” are classic hairstyles that were already popular in the 19th century.
African Reinstallation

Culture

Mende

2000–2000

Meet Mende →

Culture

Vai

2000–2000

Meet Vai →

Explore the Collection Further

Mende
Souvenir Briefcase
1933–1966
Mende
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Ndoli Jowei)
1866–1932
Mende
Wrapper
1933–1966
Sherbro
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Ndoli Jowei)
1933–1966
Mende
Blanket
1933–1966
Mende
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Ndoli Jowei)
1900–1932
Mende
Textile
1900–1966
Vai
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Nowo or Zo-Ba)
1900–1932
Mende
Figure
1933–1966
Mende
Sande Society Helmet Mask (Ndoli jowei)
1933–1966
Mende
Gameboard
1900–1932
Bullom and Sherbro
Sande Society Helmet Mask
1900–1932