Mossi Mask performance, wood, hemp fiber
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http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart)
Mossi masks at a funeral in a small town south of Boulsa, far eastern Mossi area, 1977. The red, or male, mask, and the dwarf.
http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eafricart/streamingmovies/RSTP_files/BwaBoni512K_Stream001.mov
http://youtu.be/Xn4_2mZ7hpo Magical Mossi Fire Mask 1:48 min.
Mossi masks at a funeral in a small town south of Boulsa, far eastern Mossi area, 1977. The red, or male, mask, and the dwarf.
http://www.uiowa.edu/%7Eafricart/streamingmovies/RSTP_files/BwaBoni512K_Stream001.mov
http://youtu.be/Xn4_2mZ7hpo Magical Mossi Fire Mask 1:48 min.
Eastern Boulsa-style Mossi masks, the masks emerge from the home of the deceased, among most of the peoples in Burkina Faso, masks are worn with a thick costume made of the fibers of the Hibiscus cannabinus or Cannabinus indica. The plants are cultivated in fields of millet, and are harvested just before the annual period when masks perform. Many peoples of Burkina Faso continue to create elaborate and beautiful masks
that are used in funerals, initiations, village purification ceremonies, and market day dances as they have been for centuries. These masks are almost indistinguishable from the great masterpieces of African art that have been displayed in museums and illustrated in texts for decades. Whenever a head of a household dies, immediately after the burial, they block the door to the house where he was lying and they open another exit, so that if he tries to return he will be confused. If it is a question of an important individual, a great funerary ceremony is held to which are invited all of the villages of the region. It is at these ceremonies that
the `Ouangos' appear... The `Ouangos' comprise a rather mysterious fraternity. They have a secret language, and while they are singing, anyone who utters a word will certainly die within the year... I feel that it would be most interesting to attempt to study the `Ouangos' and their customs in greater detail than I have been able. I feel, in fact, that it is a question of a really ancient tradition, antedating the arrival of the Mossi [Nakomse] in the basin of the Volta, which these peoples found among the peoples they conquered. They preserved it, undoubtedly not daring to fight against it. In fact, one finds `Ouangos' everywhere among the gurunsi, and the `Dou' seen by Binger among the Bobos seem to me to be of the same origin. The totemic mask dancers depicted in certain photos from Desplanges remind me very much of the Mossi `Ouangos'.
the `Ouangos' appear... The `Ouangos' comprise a rather mysterious fraternity. They have a secret language, and while they are singing, anyone who utters a word will certainly die within the year... I feel that it would be most interesting to attempt to study the `Ouangos' and their customs in greater detail than I have been able. I feel, in fact, that it is a question of a really ancient tradition, antedating the arrival of the Mossi [Nakomse] in the basin of the Volta, which these peoples found among the peoples they conquered. They preserved it, undoubtedly not daring to fight against it. In fact, one finds `Ouangos' everywhere among the gurunsi, and the `Dou' seen by Binger among the Bobos seem to me to be of the same origin. The totemic mask dancers depicted in certain photos from Desplanges remind me very much of the Mossi `Ouangos'.