Elephant Mask (Bamileke Peoples)


Elephant (Aka) Mask, Kuosi Society, Bamileke Peoples, Grassfields region of Cameroon, 20th century, cloth, beads, raffia, fiber, 146.7 x 52.1 x 29.2 cm (Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York)

The austere display of this powerful object masks the complexity of its original context.


Additional resources

This mask at the Brooklyn Museum

Another elephant mask at the Dallas Museum of Art


Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

More Smarthistory images…

Cite this page as: Dr. Peri Klemm and Dr. Steven Zucker, "Elephant Mask (Bamileke Peoples)," in Smarthistory, November 11, 2015, accessed June 3, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/elephant-mask-kuosi-society-bamileke-peoples-cameroon/.