Bamileke Elephant Mask
Beaded elephant masks of the Cameroon Grassfields are worn by men's societies of the Bamileke and related peoples, who dance them at the funerals of notables, the installation of chiefs, and the festivals of the kwifo, the regulatory society that enforces chiefly authority. The mask takes the shape of an elephant head, with broad flat ears and a central trunk, and is built over carved wood or a cloth and raffia frame before being covered in glass beads in the royal colours of the chiefdom. The elephant, like the leopard, belongs to the forest powers that underwrite Grassfields kingship, and th