Chewa Peoples, Malawi, Mask, circa 1950, wood, feathers, cloth, and paint, H. 43 x W. 20 x D. 9 in., Courtesy of Laurel Birch Kilgore
Crest Masks (ciwaraw kun)
Title: Crest Masks (ciwaraw kun)
Date: early–mid 20th century
Artist: Mande artist
Dimensions: Male figure: 33 1/4 x 12 1/2 x 1 5/8 in. (84.5 x 31.8 x 4.1 cm); Female figure: 26 7/8 x 8 1/2 x 2 1/2 in. (68.3 x 21.6 x 6.4 cm)
Medium: Wood, string, and metal
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)
Object Number: 86.1/1-2
Culture: Mande; Mali
Classification: Sculpture
Department: African
This YouTube Playlist was curated to showcase and connect works of art in The North Carolina Museum of Art with music forms from different African cultures.
Sampa the Great, Final Form, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2lvgKDpiSA
This Zambian-born, Botswana-raised artist features Chewa masquerade performers and some amazing style in this music video, which also samples the same vintage 1970s beat that Ghostface Killah uses in his track “Be Easy.” You can see Chewa masks on view in the African galleries at the NCMA.
Chewa masks and ceramics feature bright colors, feathers, and other attention grabbing elements. This mask, made circa 1950 and on loan from Laurel Birch Kilgore, is now on display in the newly expanded African art gallery. The gallery’s bigger space allows us to display more works—including a masquerade area (where you can find this mask), a contemporary art section, and a wall highlighting North Carolina collections. It also features improved lighting controls, meaning light-sensitive works (like the feathers of this mask) can be on view for longer than before.
Fatoumata Diawara, Nterini, 2018
The Malian actress, singer-songwriter, and multiple Grammy Award nominee sings primarily in Bambara, the national language of Mali, and is inspired by the culture of her ancestral Wassoulou region.
Nterini, which means “My Love/Confidant,” opens with the reminder “ In a world of seven billion people, one billion are migrants.” The music video, directed by Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh, follows a young man on his journey in search for a better life, however, by the end, his family receives bad news of his journey.
You can experience some works by Malian artists on display at the NCMA or here.
https://ncartmuseum.org/art/detail/pair_of_antelope_headdresses_ciwara
https://ncartmuseum.org/art/detail/antelope_headdress_ciwara
Crest Mask (ciwara kun)
Title: Crest Mask (ciwara kun)
Date: early–mid 20th century
Artist: Mande artist
Dimensions: 12 x 24 1/4 x 3 1/8 in. (30.5 x 61.6 x 7.9 cm)
Medium: Wood, beads, string, and metal
Credit Line: Gift of the Hanes Corporation
Object Number: GL.72.19.37
Culture: Mande; Mali
Classification: Sculpture
Department: African
Ha artist, Ha Mask, mid-20th century, glass beads, fiber, feathers, and thread, 12 x 13 in., North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, Purchased with funds from the African and African-American Purchase Fund
Diamond Platnumz, Sikomi, 2017
Nasibu Abdul Juma Issack is a Tanzanian bongo flava recording artist, actor, dancer, philanthropist, and businessman from Tandale, Dar es Salaam
English Translation of song
I Can't Stop
They say love is a journey
The more you move the closer you get
But it seems I'm going far, and I'm not sure I'll reach since I'm walking
I heard the news of praises1 I stayed up at night waiting
God poured his blessings and I delved into music
While still in my pilgrimage2
I hoped on to fell in love with a movie star
I still didn't know love requires patience3
I was impatient adding salt, eating a fruit when it wasn't yet ripe4
I became rotten
I called myself knowledgeable in bed issues
I wanted to chase the cat
Instead of a dog, I reared a goat
Jealousy made me argue with my friends
Quarreling with my mother, not listening to her advice.
My heart tells me "Nasibu5, it's enough with loving"
But I keep fighting with my conscience
Es tells me, my young brother, it's enough with love issues
But I can't stop, today I'm hurt by one lover, tomorrow by another
Why can't I stop?
I don't stop
I can't stop, despite all the hurt, why can't I stop
Why can't I stop?
I don't stop
I can't stop, despite all the hurt, why can't I stop
What the girl from Central did to me, I can never say
But I've learnt to never trust movie actresses
My heart hurt from the pain they inflicted on me, I could neither eat, nor throw up
Which is why I wasn't shocked when she announced she'd jumped ship from CCM to CHADEMA7
They say he who makes his bed must lie on it8
But every night there was a crisis forcing me to cry
'Love' became the trumpet calling others to come mock me
So I encouraged myself that it would all pass, let me endure
Let me not talk about Penny
Whom I gifted a car when she told me she was pregnant
Yet she went ahead and aborted my kid
God blessed me with Zari, with whom I've had two beautiful kids, a girl and a boy,
But in my stupidity I cheated on her, such a shame was a topic in media outlets
My heart tells me "Nasibu5, it's enough with loving"
But I keep fighting with my conscience
Esma6 tells me, my young brother, it's enough with love issues
But I can't stop, today I'm hurt by one lover, tomorrow by another
Why can't I stop?
I don't stop
I can't stop, despite all the hurt, why can't I stop
I've walked on people cheating on me (I can't stop)
I've been found cheating (I can't stop)
Why can't I stop?