POUNOU MASK.
Original: Pounou Mask ( Gabon)

Pounou form part of a series of kingdom of Loango in Angola. They emigrate at the 18th century towards North to be established in Gabon. Their culture is based on the ancestors worship  and the life is organized around the villages independently of any centralised power. The cohesion of the clans and the families is ensured by usual societies which manage the social life. It is within the framework of the "Koudji" society that the masks bleached with the kaolin are used. They represent the woman idealized with on the face
and the temples scarifications which underline the beauty of it. Nowadays, they are carried at the time of festivals by dancers assembled on splinters and dissimulated under clothing of raffia or fabrics. They threaten crowd of their drive out-foams and their cries, while carrying out pirouettes with the sound of the music.