Lipiko (Makonde helmet mask)
Makonde helmet mask carved from soft *ntene* wood, worn atop the dancer's skull in *mapiko* masquerade at male initiation and funerals; a ritual object, not a commercial carving.
Lipiko (plural mapiko) is the Makonde helmet mask, carved from soft ntene (wild kapok) wood and worn atop the dancer's skull during the mapiko masquerade at male initiation and funerals. The mask channels an ancestral spirit — the dancer is understood to become the spirit, not merely to impersonate it — and its existence is traditionally kept secret from women and the uninitiated.
Old ritual lipiko often incorporate real human hair pressed into the soft wood with black beeswax, naturalistic lichumba scarification in shallow relief, and a raised ndonya lip-plug disc on female masks. The term names both the object and the entire ceremonial genre (mapiko); confusing it with the modern commercial shetani form is the single most common misattribution in the market (Kingdon 2002; Bortolot 2007).
Related entries
- Dinembo (Makonde wax tattoo marks)Raised facial and body tattoo patterns of the Makonde and their Rovuma neighbours, reproduced on masks as beads and strands of blackened beeswax pressed onto the wood rather than carved.
- Makonma (Makonde face mask)Face-covering mask of the Makonde complex, worn over the front of the head in contrast to the *lipiko* helmet mask; more common on the Tanzanian side and among Makua and Mwera neighbours.
- Ndonya (Makonde lip plug)Upper-lip plug worn by Makonde women, rendered on female masks as a raised disc above the mouth; a Makonde-specific marker with no counterpart among neighbouring peoples.