IMG_9251.jpg
IMG_9251.jpg

ENYÍ-DIOS | Mask-We

$300.00

Every mask holds a world within it.

This piece was hand-carved and painted by a participant of Slang Global's MASK-WE Project — a women's empowerment program based in Enugu, Nigeria, where art, culture, and economic opportunity converge. No two masks are alike. The artist who made yours chose every color, every symbol, every stroke with intention.

The MASK-WE masks are rooted in a powerful cultural dialogue between West Africa and Latin America. Each mask is painted in the vibrant, living tradition of the Mexican alebrije — bold reds, yellows, blues, greens, and blacks that pulse with energy and life. Woven into that color are ancient Igbo symbols: Nsibidi and Uli markings that have carried the stories of Nigerian womanhood for generations. Together, they form something entirely new — and entirely true.

The woman who made this mask sat in a workshop in southeastern Nigeria and painted her story into the wood. Her triumphs. Her fears. Her identity. Her voice. The mask you're holding is not a decorative object — it is a document of a life, rendered in color and symbol.

Proceeds from each sale go directly back to the MASK-WE participants to fund their business plans and long-term economic independence.

What you're bringing home: A hand-carved, hand-painted wooden mask. Original Nsibidi and Uli symbolic markings. Alebrije-inspired color palette. A certificate of origin and artist information. A piece of an ongoing cultural exchange between Nigeria and the world.

Made in Enugu, Nigeria. Presented by Slang Global — connecting West Africa and Latin America through culture, art, and shared humanity

Frequency:

Every mask holds a world within it.

This piece was hand-carved and painted by a participant of Slang Global's MASK-WE Project — a women's empowerment program based in Enugu, Nigeria, where art, culture, and economic opportunity converge. No two masks are alike. The artist who made yours chose every color, every symbol, every stroke with intention.

The MASK-WE masks are rooted in a powerful cultural dialogue between West Africa and Latin America. Each mask is painted in the vibrant, living tradition of the Mexican alebrije — bold reds, yellows, blues, greens, and blacks that pulse with energy and life. Woven into that color are ancient Igbo symbols: Nsibidi and Uli markings that have carried the stories of Nigerian womanhood for generations. Together, they form something entirely new — and entirely true.

The woman who made this mask sat in a workshop in southeastern Nigeria and painted her story into the wood. Her triumphs. Her fears. Her identity. Her voice. The mask you're holding is not a decorative object — it is a document of a life, rendered in color and symbol.

Proceeds from each sale go directly back to the MASK-WE participants to fund their business plans and long-term economic independence.

What you're bringing home: A hand-carved, hand-painted wooden mask. Original Nsibidi and Uli symbolic markings. Alebrije-inspired color palette. A certificate of origin and artist information. A piece of an ongoing cultural exchange between Nigeria and the world.

Made in Enugu, Nigeria. Presented by Slang Global — connecting West Africa and Latin America through culture, art, and shared humanity

ENYÍ-DIOS Handcrafted Mask by Sophia Ahuoyiza Abubakar Ihima, Okehi LGA, Kogi State, Nigeria | MASK-WE Project, Enugu 2025 $250

Enyí — water, in Ebira. Dios — God, in Spanish. Enyí-Dios. The Water God.

She arrived in a storm.

The day Sophia Ahuoyiza Abubakar was born, the sky opened. Rain so heavy it flooded the little bridges over the streams of her village. Her grandmother — her Inya — was rushing to the hospital with birth supplies when the waters rose beneath her feet. The world, it seemed, had something to say about this arrival. It said it loudly.

Her aunty Ize would tell the story every chance she got, always with the same gleam in her eye, as if she were hearing it for the first time. "You came as a surprise," she'd say. And then: "Inya called you Ahuoyiza — for such fanfare can only follow one with blessed feet."

Ahuoyiza grew into everything her grandmother imagined. Strong. Beautiful. Stubborn. Unyielding. She moved through the world with a certainty so steady it looked like she had been handed a map of her own destiny at birth. What people didn't see — what the mask once hid — was the doubt underneath. The questions. The searching. The quiet work of a woman trying to find her place and purpose while refusing, absolutely refusing, to stop moving forward.

Then in 2021, she swam for the first time.

Water had always been kept from her. Fools die in rivers, Aunty Ize had warned, and Ahuoyiza had carried that fear like a stone in her chest for years. But when she finally dipped below the surface, something shifted. She felt grounded. She felt peace. She felt, for the first time, entirely at home.

She had been water all along.

Enyí-Dios is the expression of that arrival — the moment a woman meets the fullness of her own power and decides to stop being afraid of it. The symbols carved and painted into this mask carry her story: the storm of her birth, the rivers she was kept from, the woman who walked forward anyway, and the water that was always waiting to welcome her home.

When you bring Enyí-Dios into your space, you carry a piece of Ahuoyiza's journey — and an invitation to find your own.

Hand-carved and painted by Sophia Ahuoyiza Abubakar as part of Slang Global's MASK-WE Project, Enugu, Nigeria. Featuring original Nsibidi and Uli symbols in the alebrije tradition. One of a kind.