An elegant Grebo mask

An elegant Grebo mask, Ivory Coast/Liberia, from the Sassandra region, southeastern Liberia and in the western coastal region of Côte d’Ivoire, near the Sassandra River.with an elongated, slender nose, framed by bulging, tubelike eyes and a rectangular mouth, the elongated, flattened forehead slightly bent; natural brownish to occhre patina, incl. stand, provenance Bakari Bouaflé, Abidjan.

The Grebo masks of the Sassandra region represent a distinctive tradition within the broader Grebo cultural complex of southeastern Liberia and southwestern Côte d’Ivoire. The Sassandra region specifically refers to the area along the Sassandra River in Côte d’Ivoire, though the Grebo people live on both sides of the modern national border, resulting in overlapping cultural practices. These masks are particularly notable for their highly expressive and often anthropomorphic features, which are exaggerated to convey spiritual power, social authority, or the presence of ancestral forces. Large, protruding eyes, broad noses, and open mouths—sometimes displaying teeth—serve not only aesthetic purposes but also communicate the force and vigilance of the spirit embodied in the mask.

Sassandra Grebo masks frequently incorporate additional decorative and symbolic elements such as geometric scarification patterns, raffia, shells, or feathers. These features enhance both the visual impact and the ritual potency of the mask. Functionally, the masks play an essential role in a variety of communal and ritual contexts, including initiation ceremonies, conflict mediation, funerary rites, and public festivals. During performances, the wearer becomes the vehicle for ancestral or spiritual power, and the exaggerated features of the mask amplify the perceived authority and efficacy of the spirit.

Compared with other Grebo masks from Liberia, Sassandra masks display a distinctive combination of anthropomorphic realism and expressive exaggeration. While Liberian Grebo masks can lean toward abstraction or intense dramatization, Sassandra masks maintain a balance that emphasizes human recognition while simultaneously signaling spiritual otherness. This balance allows the masks to function effectively in both social and ritual dimensions, mediating between the human community and the ancestral or spiritual realm. Their form, performance, and symbolic content illustrate the integration of aesthetics, morality, and cosmology in West African masquerade traditions.

Literature

MacGaffey, Wyatt. Religion and Society in Central Africa: The Bakongo of Lower Zaire. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986.

Reed, Daniel B. Dan Ge Performance: Masks and Music in Contemporary Côte d’Ivoire. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.

Vogel, Susan Mullin, ed. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981.

Schoffel, Serge. Masques et figures rituelles de l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Private research dossier, 2005.

Herreman, Frank, ed. Masterpieces from Central Africa. Tervuren: Royal Museum for Central Africa, 2007.

Barthélémy, Claude. Masques et sociétés africaines: Approches ethnographiques et artistiques. Paris: Éditions de l’IRD, 1995.

CAB30665

Height: 61 cm
Weight: 2,2 kg incl. stand