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African Masks
2004 Wall Calendar

African masks transform their wearers into expressions of a spirit force. Music, dance, and reverence bring forth the spirit--a guardian of secrets, a creation archetype, a wise teacher, or an authoritative adviser on the honorable conduct of village life. Masks are also worn to appease the ancestors' and the animals' spirits; to transmit tribal history and legend; to inspire awe and to avert evil; and for initiations--of the young into adulthood, of the grown into a secret society. Recently, masks often appear in public performances for entertainment. The splendid masks shown here are the work of peoples from all over sub-Saharan Africa and from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.