Tsaayi / Kidumu (Teke disc mask)
A near-circular flat wooden disc mask of the Teke Tsaayi, painted with a bold bisected geometric design in red, white, and black, used in the *kidumu* masquerade.
The tsaayi (the mask's name among the Teke Tsaayi; kidumu refers both to the masquerade and, in some usages, to the mask itself) is one of the most formally distinctive objects in Central African art: a thin wooden disc, typically 30–45 cm in diameter, whose face is dominated by a horizontal median line dividing it into two contrasting geometric fields rendered in red ochre, white kaolin, and black pigment. Facial features are reduced to schematic low-relief elements — brow ridges, a vestigial nose — subordinated to the overall abstract composition.
Marie-Claude Dupré's research on the kidumu masquerade among the Teke Tsaayi of the Plateaux region provides the most detailed documentation of the mask's ceremonial context: it appeared at funerals, initiations, and political assemblies, worn horizontally over the face with the performer viewing through gaps at the rim. The mask's graphic boldness and compact form have made it a consistent target for workshop replication; the market contains a substantial proportion of modern copies, and acquisition of any example without a documented pre-1970 collection history warrants independent technical analysis.