Chokwe Pwo African Passport Mask 1616 - For African Art Gallery

Chokwe Pwo African Passport Mask 1616 - For African Art Gallery

The Chokwe Pwo African art mask is a female mask.  When masqueraded, the performance which is for entertainment, a comedy of manners or social satire, is very popular and is open to every one.  In present times, it is mostly masqueraded at Christmas celebrations, political rallies or workshops on rural development run by NGOs.

The Chokwe Pwo mask can represent (in caricature form) only women in general, but it can also secretly represent a loved one, or be the source of a firm bond between a pwo mask owner and one of his ancestors.

A lot of care is taken in the pwo African masks presentation, the accessories and adornement can give hints to the fashion and period in which the mask was crafted.  The oldest pwo masks have always had beautiful scarification marks and teeth filed to point, which at one time was a sign of beauty.  Earrings are further adorned with coins, inported beads, ribbons and little zinc tokens that served as tax receipts in colonial times.

Passort masks are miniature masks with all the same attributes as the larger dance masks, but were kept on alters of members from the Pwo society.