The kalelwa mask (derived from lelwa, cloud) performed during the mukanda, a male initiation ritual. One of its functions is to keep women and uncircumcised boys away from the mukanda camp. Its presence is also required to produce a remedy that would banish heavy rains.

The remarkable tower that takes the place of the headdress evokes the image of a termite mound. Among the Tshokwe, such a mound forms a passage between the world of the living and the world of the ancestors.