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Download the African Mask Guide (PDF)About these illustrations
Each mask above is a real, named tradition — the Dan, Dogon, Baule, Fang, Senufo, Kuba, Yoruba (Gelede), Chokwe, Songye, Punu, Bwa, and Makonde peoples — historically used for entertainment, judicial authority, funerary rites, initiation, or royal courts, not generic “tribal decor.” The artwork here is original line-art inspired by each tradition's documented form, not a photograph or reproduction of a specific ceremonial object.
Functions and visual descriptions reflect general ethnographic and museum consensus (e.g. the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art). Regional variation exists within every tradition.