Ty Wara, Segou Style

Tyi wara, ty or ti wara, chy, ci or cy wara: many names are used for the best-known crest mask of the Bambara.

It is the mythical antelope, born of the union of the old mother Mousso Koroni and the snake, one of the five primordial animals, which taught people to cultivate the land and revealed the secrets of agriculture. Its stylised representation of the hippotragus, or horse antelope, is the emblem of the ‘Fla-n-kuru’, a brotherhood of the Tyi Wara society belonging to the age-grade system, which brings boys and girls together in a single seven-year age group. These youth associations have the social purpose of clearing land or helping the most disadvantaged with fieldwork, such as sowing and harvesting. This assistance forms part of the initiation process. On these occasions, a pair of dancers wearing male and female Tyi Wara masks, protective animals of the crops, would appear, preceded by a sacrificer carrying a fetish and accompanied by a jester mask. The masks went through the fields, imitating the movements of the hippotragus, to drive out the ‘nyama’,

negative emanations, detect any danger or discover malevolent spirits capable of tearing the soul from cultivated plants or the life force from their seeds.

Bambara mythology recounts that the Hippotragus antelope, sent by Faro, gave humans their first grain and then taught them to work the land. The masks always appear in pairs, male and female. The wearers’ bodies are always covered with plant fibres, and the mask is fixed in a kind of wicker basket on the head, or secured with plant fibres. Their bodies are entirely concealed beneath clothing of raffia fibres and leaf litter, symbolising rain.

The female antelope carries a small antelope on her back as a symbol of motherhood and fertility.

The male couple symbolizes the union, strength and wisdom the farmer needs to fertilize and cultivate the land that will give him and his family food. It also evokes for the Bambara the analogy between the sexual act and the work of the earth, the analogy between the fertility of the woman and the work of the fields.

In the region of Bougouni they are called "Gousougou" or "Gouzoungou".

Another Ci Wara model combines stylised, superimposed forms of the pangolin, aardvark and Hippotragus antelope, three animals in close contact with the earth, and is used mainly in the Baninko region. While the Hippotragus antelope taught people to till the soil, the aardvark is characterised by its persistence and endurance in digging. The pangolin, a land animal that also frequents water, is associated with spirits and is therefore a symbol of fertility.

These masks are essentially involved in agricultural festivities and rites designed to attract rain.

The horns are horizontal, as is the body, which may be that of an antelope or another animal. The head is usually articulated, with a domed forehead and protruding tongue. A long, coiled tail may belong to the same animal or to another. A figure, which may be male or female, appears on the head or back.