Object Details
- Local Numbers
- E 3 KBA 6 EE 72
- General
- Title is provided by EEPA staff based on photographer's notes.
- Local Note
- 0035
- Frame value is 2.
- Slide No. E 3 KBA 6 EE 72
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Collection Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Place
- Africa
- Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Topic
- Masquerades
- Dance
- Masks
- Animals in art
- Animals in art -- Elephants
- Clothing and dress -- Africa
- Photographer
- Elisofon, Eliot
- Culture
- Kuba (African people)
- See more items in
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection
- Eliot Elisofon Field collection / Congo (Democratic Republic) / EECL / Muentshi, Congo (Democratic Republic)
- Extent
- 1 Slides (photographs) (col.)
- Date
- 1972
- Archival Repository
- Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art
- Identifier
- EEPA.1973-001, Item EEPA EECL 4045
- Type
- Archival materials
- Slides (photographs)
- Color slides
- Collection Citation
- Eliot Elisofon Field Collection, EEPA 1973-001, Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution
- Collection Rights
- Permission to reproduce images from the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives must be obtained in advance. The collection is subject to all copyright laws.
- Genre/Form
- Color slides
- Scope and Contents
- "Mukyeem, also called mukenga, is morphologically a variant of the moshambwooy mask. It is crowned with a bent-forward representation of an elephant trunk with two tusks. The mukyeem mask does not appear in the immediate vicinity of the king, but rather is seen among the Kete, Ngongo, Ngeende, and also with some other constituent peoples of the Kuba kingdom. It performs at funerary rituals of notables and evokes death. The predominant white color of the cowrie shells serves as a sign of mourning and is associated with the desiccated bones of the ancestors. When the mask performs, red parrot feathers adorn the trunk's end; this is a privilege of the notables."[Cornet J., 1993: Face of the Spirits; Masks from the Zaire Basin. Annals of the Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren.]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignement for National Geographic and traveled to Africa from January 19, 1972 to mid April 1972.
- Collection Restrictions
- Use of original records requires an appointment. Contact Archives staff for more details.
- Record ID
- ebl-1536955032661-1536955038969-1
