Bundu: Sowei Headpieces at the QCC Art Gallery

The Bundu or Sande Society is a pan-African association of women found among several West African groups in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.  It educates and initiates young girls so as to enable them to assume their place in an adult society as wives and mothers and as social and political leaders.  Entry into this society confers not only political power, but also introduces members to the association’s role in promoting wellness and treating disease.  As a result, it is also a medicine society that employs both spiritual and physical therapies to help those in need, especially women and children.

Bundu masks, which are the focus of a current exhibition at the QCC Art Gallery in New York, are unique in sub-Sahara Africa in that they are the only ones worn by women in public masquerades.  These sowei helmet masks, which are diverse in form, are worn by female masqueraders draped in black raffia who embody the society’s spirit and serve as intermediaries with the ancestors.

This exhibition presents sixty sculptures that display the wonderful stylistic diversity of these masks among the Bassa, Gola, Mende, and Vai peoples of Africa.

Visit the exhibition's official website.

Information and images courtesy of the QCC Art Gallery

Topeka Gets a Taste of African Art

“Africa Everyday,” the latest exhibit on display at the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery in Topeka, Kansas, showcases a rich collection of African Art representing eight tribes: Maasai from Kenya, Asante from Ghana, Baule and Dan from Ivory Coast, Loma from Liberia, Mende from Sierra Leone and Dogon and Bamana from Mali.

Running from January 15th through February 19th, the items on display have been used by generations of tribespeople. Art and artifacts used for special ceremonies and for everyday are presented.



For example, the exhibit features elder’s regalia worn by former Topeka Zoo Director Gary Clarke, when he was initiated as an honorary elder by the Maasai. Clarke, of Topeka, has taken more than 140 safaris to Africa.


Other works of art on display include a wedding necklace made by mothers in the Maasai tribe to give to their bride-to-be daughters and an ax used in tribal construction.

“It’s fun to marvel at the differences and similarities between our society and societies thousands of miles away,” according to Sabatini Gallery director Sherry Best.


The Sabatini Gallery, open during regular library hours, is the oldest public art collection in Topeka. The gallery has been developing an African-themed collection since 1957.