Helmet mask in colon style: British soldier with beret

light weighted wood, brown patina, black and red paint, european facial features (narrow nose and lips), coiffure from real hair, inserted in scratched fissures, sign of the Red Cross at the beret and the pupils painted, slightly dam., minor missing parts, crack (beret/nape), rep. (crack right face half);
"lipiko" masks were extremely valuable, so that every village only had three or four of them. They were carved outside the village at secret places and were hidden in special mask houses. The "lipiko" masks appeared at so-called "mapiko" masquerades, shortly after the young male initiates returned from the bush camps. They represented the spirits of the ancestors "midimu" and should invite community to take part in the rites.