There are books about African masks and about outsider art.

"These are my antiques," he said of his African masks and figures arrayed around him.

An African mask sat on top of a tall black plinth in one corner.

Under the blows of his adze, an African mask quickly takes shape.

He continued past a skull and a huge, blue-painted African mask.

However most African masks are now being produced for the tourist trade.

They all suggest faces, and many of them bring to mind traditional African masks.

Indeed, many of the traditional African masks are on loan from the art museum.

That African masks had lives and meanings of their own was ignored.

I remember an anthropologist, a woman whose house was filled with African tribal masks.