MŻo/A/3549: koba antelope mask (mos) MŻo/A/3550: abstract mask MŻo/A/3551: snake mask

Local name: wango - mask (mos)

Origin: Mossi (Burkina Faso)

Dating: second half of the 20th century

Dimensions:

MŻo/A/3549: height 117.0 cm, width 22.0 cm, depth 17.0 cm

MŻo/A/3550: height 111.0 cm, width 13.5 cm, depth 9.0 cm

MŻo/A/3551: height 121.0 cm, width 14.0 cm, depth 9.0 cm

Material: wood

Techniques: carving

Acquired: MŻo/A/3549: Jacek Łapott, craft shop, Bobo-Dioulasso, 1991

MŻo/A/3550: Jacek Łapott, craft shop, Ouahigouya, 2009

MŻo/A/3551: Jacek Łapott, craft shop, Ouahigouya, 2008

Description:

Mossi people belong to the Volta group, inhabit mainly the central and southern part of Burkina Faso (approx. 46.0% of the population), and the neighboring countries: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Niger. In total, their population is estimated at over 11 million people. Half of the population (especially in the north) are Islam followers, 25-30% are Christians, the rest are followers of traditional religion. The basis of livelihood is agriculture and breeding; crafts are also developed, foundry is on a particularly high level. The capital city of Ouagadougou is considered one of the largest foundry centers in West Africa.

Column masks are characteristic of the Volta cultural circle. The name “column” refers to a carved, high, narrow board, which is an upper part of a mask. In the literature you can also find the name "board masks", but these term refers to wider masks made by the Bobo, Tusyana, Gurunsi and others. The highest column mask used for dancing is the Dogon mask called sirige (story house), its height reaches 5 meters. The iminana mask is taller than sirige, its height reaches 11 meters, it participates in the most important ceremonies, but it does not take part in dances.

R. A. Kucenkov believes that the shape of the sirige mask is the result of the evolution of the male Mossi mask form. These similarities result not so much from the form of masks, which is original in every culture, but from the ethnohistorical aspect: the convergence of rituals, functions and content, i.e. the most durable parameters of traditional art. In turn, the Austrian ethnologists A.-M. Schweeger-Hefel and W. Staude believe that the sirige mask has a greater formal correspondence with the columnar (tall) Nioniosi masks. One of the presented masks (MŻo/A/3550) is considered by some ethnologists to be the mask of the Kurumba or Nioniosi people.

Local names use language codes according to the Ethnologue Languages of the World system (https://www.ethnologue.com/)

Bibliography:

Delange Jacqueline, 1967, Arts et peuples de l’Afrique noire, Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

Schweeger-Hefel Annemarie, 1966, L’art Nioniosi, „Journal de la Société des Africanistes”, v. 36, pp. 251-332.

Kucenkov Petr Anatolevich (КУЦЕНКОВ ПЁТР АНАТОЛЬЕВИЧ), 1990, Etnos i ego iskusstvo: Zapadnyj Sudan, Moskva: Nauka.

Leuzinger Elsy, 1961, Africa Nera, Milano: Il Saggiatore.

Schweeger-Hefel Annemarie, Staude Wilhelm, 1972, Die Kurumba von Lurum, Wien: Verlag A. Schendl.

Edited by Lucjan Buchalik

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The purchase is co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport as part of the National Institute of Museums and Collections' own program "Expansion of museum collections".