Africa - Adorning the body

1. Cameroon. Bamileke night society members. 20s - 30s of the XX century.

2. Bandjoun, West Region of Cameroon - Bamiléké mask decorated with pearls, this dancer wearing a colobus monkey hairs headdress and carries in his hands a ceremonial flyswatter.

3. Mali. Boys with Bamana Ntomo Masks which are worn at the circumcision ritual.

4. West of Ivory Coast. A young Manon girl painted for initiation ritual.

5. Democratic Republic of Congo - Hamba man of the forest dressed for the "Loukoutou dance" which strengthens matrimonial alliances between kinship groups (Photo: Luc de Heusch). 

6. Gabonese forest, Ngi dance mask painted in white (clay) and red (pounded earth). It is probably a mask carved after a dream where the form was revealed to the sleeper.

7. Gabon. Bakota people. 20s - 30s of the XX century.

8. Batéké Plateau (French Congo) - Big Chief Teke. 30s of the XX century.

9. Batéké dancer who has become a spirit of the air, a bird man, during the time of the feast. 

10. Neighborhood of Ewo. Group of teke men in feast dress with hairstyles in hornbill feathers, the bodies are painted with kaolin and dressed with skirts of fibers.

The Teke or Bateke and the Bakota are Bantu ethnic groups that live in the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gabon.

11. Northern Benin. An old Somba woman with wild boar teeth inserted in her nose and lower lip. 

12. Benin. Young Dompago hunters in feast dress.

13. Toma People, Guinea. Ouenilegagui, the Bird Man (Photo: Jean Fichter).

14. Toma People, Guinea. The Guelembaï in front of the forest of initiation (Photo: Jean Fichter).