Landa/Landai

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Name of the principal mask of the men's Poro society among the Kisi and Gbandi peoples on Sierra Leone's eastern border with Liberia and Guinea. The mask is a large black wooden mask with long crocodile-like jaws worn flat on top of the head or inclined slightly forward, allowing the masker to see out between the jaws. There is a domed forehead and a beak-like nose with eyes on either side looking skywards. Attached to the forehead at the back is a large crest of dark feathers.

  • [Photographs of the mask are to be found in R.Elberl-Elber, West Afrikas Letztes Rätsel (Salzburg 1936, abb.194,195.]