Facial Mask Dueya

The Gueré are known and feared for their knowledge and magical powers. His masks are deliberately horrifying, for the more horrifying his most feared and respected aspect is his word. These masks and the clothes of their bearers are loaded with symbols intended to terrify, such as hairs, feathers, ropes, raffia and animal teeth. Only the initiates can sculpt them. And sometimes they are not “manufactured” but “found” which adds a halo of supplementary mystery.

The mask and its bearer form a single being. Man and the object disappear to give way to the “mask”, incarnation of a precise entity, loaded with personality and strength.

These masks had watchful functions, serving justice and driving the evil spirits away from the village, one of the African constants. On religious holidays he transmits the will of the ancestors to the community. It was also responsible for paying debts, opposing adultery and monitoring the safety of mothers and their minor children.

When this mask is going to pronounce a sentence, women must return home. In principle, it administers justice only to men. When a major conflict arises between two women of high social status, it is men who replace them to come to present themselves before the Dueya. The losing party may appeal to another Dueya from another neighboring town.

It also exercises information functions, in this case it is equivalent to the mask Dugué of the Dan.

In the mid-sixties, in Abidjan, when the author of this little review acquired and hung this mask in a place of his home, his "boy" or employed in domestic chores, panicked when he saw it, he refused to enter until he withdrew from his sight. The mask had to be hidden for several years. According to the secret society to which one belongs, the sight of certain masks may be prohibited.