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How were Mende Sande masks used in girlsâ initiation ceremonies?
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African art
Raffia-fiber cloth, made by the Kuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, mid-20th century; in the Honolulu Academy of Arts.
The Mende people of Sierra Leone utilize distinctive, smooth black helmet-shaped masks within the Sande society, which is one of the few womenâs societies in Africa known to employ masks.1
These masks play a central role in the education and initiation of girls into womanhood. The blackened wooden mask represents a water spirit and serves as a symbolic marker of the transformation young girls undergo as they transition into beautiful and powerful women.1