The sowei is a helmet mask cut from one block of wood, hollowed to drop over the whole head, dyed and rubbed until it returns a single hard highlight. Among the Mende of Sierra Leone it is carved for women and danced by women — the ndoli jowei of the Sande society.

Its logic is vertical and stacked: rings at the neck, a low quiet face, a ridged coiffure above. This system borrows that order — dark polished ground, tiers of content, light used sparingly as an edge rather than a wash.