The object of this conservation project is a ritual costume worn by the female Sande secret society members of the Mende people living in Sierra Leone, West Africa during the 19^th to early 20^th century.  The costume was among artifacts sent by the Order of the Fathers of the Holy Spirit to be displayed in the Vatican Missionary Exhibition in 1925.  It is one of the few items in the collection that contained all the original constructive elements.

The costume would have been made by young Sande women over the course of several rites of initiation that took place far from their home village.  Young girls were sent away from the tribe for a period of time to be schooled in cultural, social, and economic matters. The young women of the secret society were permitted to return to their village only on ceremonial occasions until their training was complete.  On these occasions they would wear the costumes and perform ritual dances.

The costume features a rare example of a female African mask; usually masks were exclusive for male use.  It simultaneously embodies the appearance of the spirit of Bundu fertility and the ideal of feminine beauty.  Notice that the mask emphasized a full forehead and small facial features, considered attributes of a beautiful woman.

The work consists of a painted wooden mask/helmet colored in glossy black, to which is attached a collar of long organic plant fibers.  The jacket is of a striped fabric with very long sleeves on which are sewn a series of bands made of plant fiber.  There are trousers in striped fabric and shoes that are covered in plant fiber.  The plant fibers are dark in color, in shades ranging from brown to black, divided into tufts bonded together by an additional braiding of fibers.

The artifact was in a grave state of conservation.  The conservators engaged in a series activities including anoxic disinfestation, photographic and X-ray analyses, scientific investigations (complicated by the mere fact there were so many different types of plant fiber and organic materials), removing and then rebuilding the layers of materials and the underlying support, and reintegration of the cloth using medieval canvas where needed.