The final presentation of the series “Facing Humanity: Selections from the Feinberg Mask Collection” will emphasize the masks and culture of Africa.

The program, entitled “African Art from the Wilderness,” will begin Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at The Octagon Center of the Arts with a lecture by Christopher Roy, an Art History professor and curator of the African art collection at the University of Iowa.

Roy will focus his discussion on the Lobi and Bwa people of Burkina Faso, a country in west Africa. “I spent most of my adult life in Burkina Faso,” Roy said.

Roy, who first went to Burkina Faso as a Peace Corps volunteer 25 years ago, emphasized that his lecture will not be based on material he read in books, but rather his own experiences.

The role objects play in African lives and the logic in which they have come to be used is important as well as the artistic value. Roy said that the Lobi people “make figures to represent the spiritual forces that guide their lives” and the Bwa “follow the same system, but make masks instead of figures” to represent spirits.

Roy, who is an art history professor, said, “The art history I teach is so much like anthropology, people have a hard time telling them apart.”

A slide show and video will be included with the lecture to add to the visual element of the program. The lecture, which will last until 3:30 p.m., will be followed by a question and answer session and refreshments.

The Feinberg Mask collection will be on display through Nov. 5.

For more information, please contact The Octagon at 232-5331 or stop by at 427 Douglas Ave.