Goli Glin Mask

According to Susan Vogel, who has studied in depth the customs and traditions of BauléThe Goli is a show that lasts for a whole day and the whole population participates. It is an original dance of the Wan of Kounanhiri, his neighbors, that the Baulé copyed at the beginning of the century XIX.

The Wan are part of the Guro And according to Nestor Brou, they were the first inhabitants of Buaké and the first to create the Goli, which is one of his oldest dances, whose bearer imitates, with his gestures, the dragon, which embodies him during the dance. The name of the mask can be given to some people to protect them or to perpetuate their lineage, so the man will be called Goli Bi or son of Goli and the woman Goli Nan. And Goli is the son of Nyamen, the god of heaven and is a protective divinity. If the bearer of this name falls ill, the Goli mask must be offered the sacrifice of a chicken or sheep for the person to recover his health. When I baulé them arrived in Buaké towards the 1.900They copied the Goli mask to the Wan to throw a party, which explains its current popularity and complexity.

It is a simple and popular dance that can be danced on fun holidays or funerals like the funerals of the notables. As in other dances, the masks appear in pairs, male and female but always carried by men, in a very similar dress. First appear the Kple-Kple masks, male masks, sons of Goli, four couples, which go out one after another, followed by the Goli Glen zoomorf masks and then the Khan Pre horned masks. Finally other female masks with male features whose braided hairstyles are crest shaped, the Kpan. Male masks are the first to dance. Both the entrance and the exit of the masks in theatrical and spectacular. Two dancers wearing a pair of Kpan masks, distinguishing the female mask from the male one after its features and its polychrome, closes the show. These two dancers wear a leopard skin on their backs, a symbol of royalty to indicate their supremacy over the rest of dancers who beat the antelope skins that cover them over their raffia garments and rattles on their ankles. People have taken part in the show singing and shouting excited by palm wine, the noise of tam-tam and the rhythms of music. The participating audience ended up giving up after a day of dances and libations.

The Goli, Susan Vogel tells us, is not just a dance, it symbolizes for the Baulé its world outlook, the hierarchy inherent in nature and society. That is why it is leopard skin, power and strength, who closes the show opened by dancers with antelope skins. The Goli shows the different hierarchies, the difference between man and woman, jungle and village, chief and junior, that is to say the world I baulé in all its complexity. Patina for use.