Origin: Mali, Dogon ethnic group

Dated: 2nd half XX century

Description: A mask of a young woman, one of the few made entirely of fibers. The bodice and the wide suspenders that support it are filled with four or five rows of kauri. The black breasts, shaped like half a baobab fruit, attached to the dancer's chest, are also framed at the base by two rows of kauri. The balaclava is covered with black hair in the form of small strings of fibers, the method of attachment of which creates a comb in the center of the head, underlined on each side with two lines of kauri. Perpendicularly, the second row forms a semicircle on the skull from one ear to the other. In different variations, the mask can be decorated with colored pearls and a straw cylinder.

Mask represents the young Andoumboulou who was devoured by a lion. In the old days a dancer held a special ax, in the 1930s he was swinging a curved stick held in his right hand. In addition to the ceremony, the owner would wear a mask during harvest to protect the fruit of the sa tree (baobab?) From women and children at harvest. Masks of this type dance to different rhythms, especially to the albarga rhythm.

Literature:

Buchalik Lucjan, 2011, Dogon ya gali. Dawny świat Dogonów, Żory: Muzeum Miejskie.

Buchalik Lucjan, Katarzyna-Perec-Nodzyńska, Katarzyna Podyma, 2012, Zespół masek Dogonów, Mali, The collection of Dogon mask. Mali [w:] Lucjan Buchalik, Katarzyna Podyma (red.) Maska afrykańska między sacrum a profanum. African Mask – Between the Sacred and the Profane, Żory – Katowice: Muzeum Miejskie w Żorach – Muzeum Historii Katowic, s. 57-94.

Griaule Marcel, 1994, Masques Dogons, Paris: Institut d' Ethnonogie - Muséé de l' Homme.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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".