NOTE:

There is a remarkably similar mask in the collection of the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Wien, Austria; which may be viewed in the Yale - Guy van Rijn Archives: No. 0023008; but note the following important distinction: the Museum fur Volkerkunde mask has the holes drilled in the bottom to accept the ceremonial garment. This object does not have those holes. But then note the flaw below the rim of the pot in this piece, just right of the object's center.

I speculate that the object was flawed in its creation, making it unacceptable for ceremonial use; but to my Western eye, the piece is just as appealing, and has, in addition, its own creation story. Moreover, the Fry object dialogues with the mask in the Museum fur Volkerkunde, and tells us something more about its maker.

In a note appended to the mask in the GvR Archives, Frederick Lamp, Benjamin Benenson Foundation Curator of African Art at Yale University, said the following about pot helmet masks:

"A representation of an iron pot is sometimes carved on top of Nowo's mask in reference to a primary rite of initiation.

"A Temne tradition says that after creating man, God instructed him to make his first meal with rice. The rice was pounded into flour and mixed with water. This alone was the sustenance of original man. Since then he has added his his civilizing variations to the diet but the basis of any meal is rice.

"In the beginning of each initiation, whether for boys or for girls, after circumcision or cliteridectomy has been performed, the first order of business is the eating of a bowl of plain rice made in the manner first handed down by the Creator.

"Thus the cycle of evolution is re-enacted by the neophytes.

"At the completion of the sacred rite, the pot in which the rice was served is overturned, signifying the fulfillment of the act of creation and the commencement of civilization."

My father once told me that he was uncircumcised when he left for Liberia; but that he contracted a difficult condition while in the country. Perhaps it was the climate; but whatever the case, he underwent his own rite of initiation without much hesitation. Perhaps it was then that his own pot of rice was overturned.