African Arts Gallery

African Guro mask showing a narrow face topped with an amulet as was customary among Guro women. This mask was used with Zamble and Zaouli, but is no longer used today. ("Guro", ed. 5Continents, pl.13) Reddish brown matte patina. Abrasions and lack on the internal contour. br /> Among the Mande group in the south, central Ivory Coast, on the banks of the Bandama, the Gouro are organized into lineages, and are the western neighbors of the Baule who have borrowed several features from their African tribal art creations. Animists, they have used since the 1950s a family of masks associated with the Zaouli dance. Indeed like the African Goli masks of the Baule, the set of Guro masks, relating to the genies of nature, comes in two zoomorphic masks followed by a third anthropomorphic one, which is considered the wife of the zamblé mask, the Gu. Priest and diviner share the predominant ritual functions among the Guro. The secret associations worship the genies of nature, through the masks in which the spirits are supposed to reside. Their protective spirits called zuzu were worshipped through statues placed on altars. The masks gu , gye and dye , in the hands of notables, were only displayed during major funerals or the enthronement of a chief (Kerchache)