Add rustic appeal to your home with authentic African masks from Ouelessebougou, Mali, in Africa. Each mask is a hand-crafted original imported for your enjoyment, and to help develop genuine commerce with Mali. If you haven't noticed African masks previously, you've found the right place to learn more. Our masks are carved using traditional methods, by skilled craftsmen in Africa. They add individualistic, rustic styling to virtually any room, and complement many types of interior decor.

Life can be difficult in developing countries such as Mali, where health, quality of life, and life expectancy lag a century behind developed countries. Poor infrastructure and sanitation, political turmoil and uncertainty, and lack of education all contribute to a difficult business climate, continued poverty and absent hope. Meanwhile, it is generally understood that small improvements in income and commerce can dramatically increase community health and quality of life. To this end, our goal is to open a pathway for needed commerce and make good things happen.

African Masks from
Simple Hand Tools

Ousmane (interpreter on right) and carver Broulaye (left) working at the mask-making trade passed down from prior generations. The hand-turned grinding wheel (by Broulaye’s left knee) keeps tools sharp. Fired charcoal (by his right hand) is used to blacken the masks. Wood for the masks is taken from benbe and bounboun trees. Formerly used in animist rituals, the masks are now made primarily for artistic expression, interior decoration, and native dancing.

Obstacles to Overcome

Email allows communication that previously was not possible. But it can be a struggle in developing countries like Mali: Ousmane travels 60 miles on dirt roads from Ouelessebougou to Bamako where he sends email using French Hotmail. He must also travel to Bamako’s airport to ship parcels because there is no service near his home. Gas is expensive: roughly 3 times the cost in the United States. Shipping is expensive too (Air France Cargo), and US Border Security (customs) slows delivery. Naturally telephone communication is also expensive — about $7/minute (no free international minutes from Verizon).

Western Union makes money transfer a breeze — provided they can find the recipient or the recipient can be informed that money is coming. Modern electronics offer yet another blessing: Digital and cell phone cameras communicate photographs to the world.

But the crucial key to the entire endeavor is an intrepid interpreter with a keen eye such as Ousmane.

African Mask Market

Who Benefits?

Proceeds from sales at Authentic African benefit (1) participants from Mali, (2) Air France Cargo, Western Union, and other commerce facilitators, and (3) Authentic African, each in approximately equal measure.

In world marketplaces, some people take joy in bargaining prices down to absolutely nothing. We do not. Instead, we are happy to pay reasonable prices, and pleased that a local artisan can feed his family.

Ask yourself this question: "Assuming I actually knew how to carve, how long would it take me to create such a mask, and at minimum wage, how much would the mask cost?" True, people in poor countries will work for virtually nothing. But why should we expect this?

So, to support this spirit of comradery, we price the artwork on Authentic African appropriately.

Our primary dissatisfaction is the substantial cost to ship from Africa to the U.S. If you would like to remedy this situation, and if you have sufficient resources to donate an ocean-going freighter (fully fueled), please let us know.