Punu Okuyi mask

The Punu were originally part of the Luango kingdom of Angola in the 18th century, and settled in south and southwest Gabon. In the Mukuyi society it represented a female guardian spirit in the funerary rites, initiation of adolescent girls and ancestral cult. At the burial ceremonies of this Punu society the mask represented a female ancestor. This mask has a face painted white with Kaolin, scarification mark carved in relief and a high piled hairdo which resembles the hairdo of the women living in this region. In the Mukuyi society the masked persons, often on stilts, performed acrobatically at the dance of the full moon symbol of fertility (L. Segy, Masks of Black Africa, 1976: pl.194).