Cikungu (Chikunga) is the most powerful and sacred of the Chokwe mahamba, the ancestral mask-spirits. It is the largest Chokwe mask, built of barkcloth stretched over a wicker frame, coated with resin and painted, and it personifies the collective power of the ancestors of the ruling lineage. Only the reigning chief (mwanangana, 'master of the land') and his heirs may wear it; at all other times it is concealed in a shelter in the bush. The mask appears at the investiture of a new chief, at sacrifices to the ancestors, and in rituals meant to ward off dangers facing the chief or his subjects. Because the Chokwe address the remote creator only through such ancestral spirits, and because the chief is regarded as the earthly representative of Kalunga/Nzambi, Cikungu stands at the apex of Chokwe sacred art.