African Arts Gallery

Figurative version of Ti-wara, Ci wara, in African art . It would be an animal - genius called Ciwara who would have taught the Bambara to cultivate the land. The latter recall the myth through the stylized representation of a hippotrague antelope, whose name ci wara means "wilderness of the earth". The piece is enhanced with fine decorative motifs embellished with copper flakes.
Matt brown patina, ochre residue.
The Bambara, Bamana, of central and southern Mali belong to the large Mande group, like the Soninke and Malinke. Animists, they believe in the existence of a creator god generically called Ngala who maintains the order of the universe. His existence coexists with another androgynous god called Faro, who gave all the qualities to men and who makes the fruits of the earth grow. Worn on top of the skull and held in place by a kind of small basket, the crests accompanied the dancers during the rituals of the tòn , an association dedicated to agricultural work. The masks would leap around the field in order to chase away the nyama, evil effluvia, from it and to detect any danger, or to flush out the evil genies that could take away the souls of the cultivated plants as well as the life force of their seeds.