African Arts Gallery

Bwa Mask (N° 16757)

Tribal art and the diversity of Bwa masks.
This large Bwa plank mask, in the hawk mask category but frequently affected by the butterfly mask, has open wings with triangular patterns and circles engraved in wood. Each pattern is a symbol associated with the myths of the clan. The two-coloured patina is composed of kaolin and a brown coating with light burgundy highlights. The circles would symbolize the flight of butterflies around the ponds during the first rains.
Good general condition.
The Bwa masks borrowed many elements from the Bwa's neighbours, the Gurunsi, Bobo and Mossi.Population established on both sides of the Black Volta in Burkina Faso and Mali, the Bwa are divided into three endogamous castes: blacksmiths, griots and farmers. The Bwa believe in a god Difini creator of the world, who later abandoned him to his son Do. Do, whose emblem is an iron rhombe named alive, is supposed to intervene during funerals and agrarian rites. The leaf masks are made by the villagers, only the South Bwa, the niegueguegue , produce wooden masks often zoomorphic, and the famous plank masks, abstract, representing the spirits of nature. Ref. In: "The bird in the art of West Africa, 9,0022 ed. Sepia; "Lifeurmals of Black Africa" ed. Sepia