African mask necklaces are powerful symbols of cultural storytelling and artistic expression, embodying tradition and bold elegance. These pieces masterfully blend various materials-ivory, coconut shell, and brass-creating a dynamic interplay of textures and tones. Their earthy palettes and robust components evoke a sense of grounded beauty, while the intentional designs reflect a connection to ancestral art forms.
Every detail invites conversation and admiration, speaking volumes about personal strength, artistry, and cultural reverence, whether styled as the centerpiece of a minimalist ensemble or layered into a vibrant look.
Historical Context and Creation
In the early 16th century, the dynamic Esigie ruled the Benin Empire of the Edo people as its Oba. He came to power as Portuguese explorers first made contact with the empire. The empire traded pepper, ivory, local textiles, and slaves for brass and coral beads.
This pendant mask was created in the early sixteenth century for an Oba (the king) named Esigie, in honor of his mother Idia. Upon the successful conclusion of the war, Esigie paid tribute to Idia by bestowing upon her the title of Queen Mother, a custom that has continued with subsequent rulers until the present time.
The Oba of Benin commissioned works from his guild of ivory and wood carvers, the Igbesanmwan.
Read also: Experience Fad's Fine African Cuisine
The Queen Mother (Iyoba)
The title of Queen Mother, or Iyoba, is given to the woman who bears the Oba’s first son, the future ruler of the kingdom. Historically, the Queen Mother would have no other children and, instead, devote her life to raising her son. Queen Idia is honored as a powerful and politically astute woman who provided critical assistance to her son during the kingdom’s battles to expand.
Oba Esigie is said to have worn the mask as a pectoral during rites commemorating his mother. The hollow back, holes around the perimeter, and stopper composed of several tendrils of hair at the summit suggest that the mask functioned as an amulet, filled with special and powerful materials that protected the wearer.
Material and Design
The face has softly modeled, naturalistic features, with graceful curves that echo the oval shape of the head. They are made of ivory, long and ovular in shape, and thinly carved, approaching semiopaqueness. Ivory, both then and now, connotes royal wealth, power, and purity. Ivory, already a luxury commodity in Africa, became increasingly coveted with the growth of the European ivory trade.
Four rungs on the side of the masks, above and below each ear, let the masks hang in suspension and indicate that the masks were suspended from a cord, though experts have disagreed on how they were worn. British Museum art historian William Fagg concluded that unlike the small brass pendant masks worn at the waist by modern kings, the ivory mask was likely worn around the neck. The similar British Museum and Metropolitan pendant masks have elaborate ornament at their hair and collar.
Iron inlays for the pupils and rims of the eyes intensify the Queen Mother’s authoritative gaze and suggest her inner strength. The two vertical depressions on her forehead were also inlaid with iron. She is depicted wearing a choker of coral beads and her hair is arranged in an elegant configuration that resembles a tiara.
Read also: The Story Behind Cachapas
Symbolism
Ivory is associated with the Edo orisha of the sea, Olokun. As this orisha gives wealth and fertility, it is the spirit world's equivalent of the Benin Oba. When an elephant was killed in Benin, the Oba received one tusk as a gift and was offered the other in sale. Thus, the Oba had many tusks and controlled the ivory trade.
The intricately carved openwork designs are stylized mudfish alternating with the faces of Portuguese traders. Both motifs are associated with the Oba and his counterpart, the sea god Olokun.
The Portuguese, who had only recently arrived in the area, were a symbol of power and affluence to the royal court. Their iconography is identifiable by their long hair, hanging mustaches (often described as bearded), and domed hats. Benin art historian Barbara Blackmun interprets these crown adornments as a reference to Idia's ability to conduct the Portuguese power to her son's favor.
The openwork of the tiara and collar represent tiny heads of Portuguese men in the tiara of both the Met and the British Museum examples, with eleven figures in the British Museum mask, and in the Met mask seven figures of Portuguese men alternating with six representations of mudfish, the West African lungfish.
Mudfish were a common theme in Benin royal arts, and reflected the divinity of the Oba. Edo cosmology believed that spirits crossed the ocean to reach the afterlife, where their leaders lived like gods. As creatures who could live on land and sea, the mudfish symbolized the duality needed for the leader's final journey, and this duality represents the seafaring Portuguese as well.
Read also: Techniques of African Jewellery
The mudfish also appear in a pattern on the Linden Museum mask's crown, while the private collection mask's crown has bird elements, also formerly present on the similar Seattle Art Museum mask. The masks also differ in pattern along their bottom, collar edges.
Notable Masks and Collections
During the 1897 punitive Benin Expedition, the British looted a group of similar ivory masks in the Oba's palace bedroom. Five to six masks of this type were found in a large chest in 1897 in the bedchamber of the then-reigning Oba Ovonramwen, the ruler at the Benin court.
The expedition's civil leader Ralph Moor took the two finest masks, which were later collected by British anthropologist Charles Gabriel Seligman and transferred to the London Museum of Mankind (now the British Museum) and the New York Museum of Primitive Art (now the Metropolitan Museum of Art).
Two additional masks from the bedchamber group were taken by the British and now reside in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum (formerly Principal Medical Officer Robert Allman) and the Linden Museum in Stuttgart (formerly W. D. Rockefeller founded the Museum for Primitive Art. The museum collected works for their artistic-and not anthropological-value, contrasting with the earlier history of African art in Western collections.
The Met's mask was acquired in 1972 as a gift of Nelson Rockefeller. He founded the Museum of Primitive Art in 1954 after the Metropolitan Museum did not reciprocate his interest in Precolumbian art. The Queens College art historian Robert Goldwater became its director and recommended acquisitions.
His argument to collect the ivory pendant mask was among his longest, at the end of 1957. He called it "the best object of its kind known, nor will any others ever turn up". Goldwater wrote that the mask was higher in quality than the similar, renowned one owned by the British Museum. The mask, he predicted, would redefine the collection and go on permanent display, on par with the Museum of Modern Art's well-known Sleeping Gypsy (1897) by Henri Rousseau. Rockefeller purchased the mask at a record price and unveiled it in September 1958.
Until its restitution in 2022 to Nigeria, the Linden Museum in Germany had such a mask in its collection.
Table of Notable African Mask Necklaces
| Mask | Current Location | Former Owner/Collector |
|---|---|---|
| Ivory Mask | British Museum | Charles Gabriel Seligman |
| Ivory Mask | Metropolitan Museum of Art | Nelson Rockefeller |
| Ivory Mask | Seattle Art Museum | Robert Allman |
| Ivory Mask | Linden Museum (formerly) | W. D. |
