Carved mask
- Audio guide stop: 182
- Gallery: Room 25
- Made in: Guinea-Bissau
- Date: 20thC early
- Object type: mask
- Materials: wood; raffia palm leaf
- Museum number: Af1957,07.1.a-b
- Museum: The British Museum
- Collection record: British Museum website
- Image © The Trustees of the British Museum, shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.
Listen to the free audio guide
About this object
This carved mask comes from Guinea-Bissau and reflects the work of the Baga people. Known as a nimba mask, it was likely used by the Simo secret society. You’ll notice this is a female bust with four legs allowing it to stand — a practical design for ritual use.
Look closely at the wooden carving and the attached raffia leaf fringe. The mask is large, standing over a meter tall, and weighed about 80 pounds when complete. That makes the four legs especially important for dancers — not only for display but for supporting the weight during performances.
Worn over the head with the wearer looking through a hole between the breasts, this mask was connected to agriculture. It was used during key moments in farming — at sowing and harvest times — to promote good crops.
Only about four or five masks like this one are known to exist, making it a rare and significant example of Baga craftsmanship.
See it in person
Carved mask is on display in Room 25 at the British Museum on Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, London — free to enter. Choose British Museum on audioguide.london and type its audio guide stop number, 182, from the gallery label, or take a photo of it, to hear this free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
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