African Arts Gallery

African art and the diversity of Bwa masks
A 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 it to his son Do. Do, whose emblem is an iron rhombus named alive, is supposed to intervene during funerals and agrarian rites. Leaf masks are made by villagers, only the Bwa of the South, the nieguegue, produce wooden masks often zoomorphic, and the famous abstract plank masks, representing the spirits of nature. This Bwa tribal mask, from the butterfly or owl mask category, bougendende, has open wings on which triangles of contrasting colors are carved into the wood. Each motif constitutes a symbol often related to the myths of the clan. The two-tone patina is composed of white kaolin and a dark brown matte coating that is now flaking. Bwa masks have borrowed many elements from the Bwa's neighbors, the Gurunsi, Bobo and Mossi.