Mask Item Number: 3480/5 from the MOA: University of British Columbia
Carved wooden face mask with a horned headdress carved at the top. The face has a pronounced brow and lips, and wide straight nose. Eyes are half lidded and oval-shaped. Cut-outs underneath lids. Face is painted dark red with white semi-circles outlined in black, below eyes. Angular ears protruding from either side of face, with raised cube motifs carved along inner edges. Cubes painted black. Black line painted between face and headdress, which has a raised curved edge. Headdress area painted dark brown, with two carved horns, curving inward. Holes drilled into either side of mask with wire attached for hanging.
Acquired by the donor's grandfather, who was an Italian civil servant in Italian occupied Ethiopia; thought to have been collected by him in the 1930s. Cultural origin of mask is uncertain.