Antique Mende Helmet Mask. Circa 1900-1950

Antique Mende Helmut Mask. Sierra Leone  The masks of the Sande society provide a unique example of masquerade performed and controlled by women in sub-Saharan Africa, where masking is normally a male prerogative. Sande is the female hale, medicine, society of the Mende people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Sierra Leone. A male hale society, Poro, is also present. Public masquerades are an important part of Mende life, mediating between community at large and the societies that are central to education and social development. The masks used by the Sande appear primarily during the initiation cycle: periods of education and ceremony for young girls celebrating their transformation into adulthood, a time that includes training in the knowledge, skills, and behaviors necessary for adulthood. The initiation includes the operation of clitoridectomy, an operation that is an important part of this transition, but a source of controversy to outsiders. To be uninitiated means to be incomp