CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Yaka Art
Art of the Yaka of the Kwango River region, Congo and Angola: painted initiation masks with upturned noses, healers' figures and slit drums.
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About
The Yaka live along the Kwango River in the south-west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and across the border in Angola. Their best-known works are masks made for n-khanda, the initiation of boys, who spend a period apart from the village before returning as men. Look for a projecting, upturned nose, bulging eyes, a face painted in bright colours, and a wide collar of raffia. The most elaborate masks, including the kholuka, carry tall superstructures of cloth over a frame of sticks, sometimes topped with carved figures or little scenes that can be humorous or bawdy. They were danced at the close of initiation.
Yaka carvers also made figures used by healers and diviners, often loaded with medicinal substances, slit drums topped with carved heads for diviners, and combs and headrests. The neighbouring Suku share many forms.
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