Koba mask

Bobo masks are found in the San region, in the south of the Republic of Mali, and in the Bobo Diulasso, Diebugú and Dedugú regions of Burkina Faso.

The Bobo are grouped into three phratries:

- The Bobo Fing, black.

- The Bobo Gbé, white.

- The Bobo Ulé, red.

They have occupied their country since the 11th century and experienced the great Mossi migrations of the 12th century. They are a farming people who, until recent decades, showed little tendency to migrate to large urban centres. Of these three groups, only the Bobo Fing work in wood. They carve it around Bobo Diulasso, making masks with human faces and animal masks. They use soft woods, and the blacksmiths perform this task. All these masks represent the spirit of Do, which protects the village against witches, spell-casters and soul-eaters.

Once carved and consecrated, the masks take part in funerals, ceremonies marking the end of mourning, and annual ceremonies held in the fields. They all dance at the same time. These ceremonies take place in June to coincide with agricultural work.

The masks are polychrome, covered in geometric designs dominated by yellow, red and black. There are human and animal representations. Many animals are depicted, such as the rooster, hawk, buffalo or antelopes, as well as various figures and young girls.

Some of these masks have a round face and a mouth in very pronounced relief, with prominent, quadrangular lips through which the teeth can be glimpsed. They are topped by a long, cut-out wooden plank decorated with black and white squares like a checkerboard. The masks wear bright red fibre clothing that covers their wearers from head to foot. To dance, the wearers carry two short sticks and a stick with leaves, or a whip.

If during the ceremony the mask is broken it must be buried exactly as if it were a human being. The culprit of the break will be treated as a murderer and must make in the sacred forest the offering of a chicken, a goat, a dog and several containers with millet beer.

There is a great variety of masks in Bobo country, the most important being those that come from divine revelation. For the Bobo, the mask is inseparable from the history of the clan or lineage to which it belongs and is its sign of identity, as Guy Le Moal tells us. Thus, despite their similarities, each mask is unique.

The Bobo never represent a living or dead being, a spirit or a legendary hero in their masks. Their masks have a figurative character, and it is precisely this ambiguity of representation that allows the memory of the ancestors, whoever they may be, to endure. Their animal masks represent the legendary protector animal of the ancestor who founded the lineage, whose flesh is forbidden to eat.

The masks appear, Guy Le Moal tells us, during the period between two harvests: between the time when the earth’s produce has been gathered, stored and consumed, and the appearance of the first produce of the following growing season.

The first Bobo mask is a leaf mask, Dwo, given by Wuro, the supreme God, to the first man, Kwere, the blacksmith. Dwo is the son of Wuro, represented by the masks.

The masks are manifested in agrarian cults, in the initiation of young people, in the feast of purification of the peoples, the Birewa daga and in funeral ceremonies.

This mask represents the Hippotragus, or horse antelope, called koba by the local people. This animal, as among the Dogon, taught humans to till the land. Old patina.