Facial mask Dyommo

The masks that represent animals are in almost all ethnic hunter masks or masks that celebrate the most important agricultural festivities. In most zoomorfa masks, they are animals related to their cosmogony. These masks wear stains that simulate the animal's fur. Legend has it that a hunter's dog saw a hare and chased it to catch it. The hunter ripped her out of the jaws before she ate it and took her home. He tied her to a rope and carved a wooden mask trying to reproduce it. Then he killed her and ate her. This seems to be the origin of this mask.

The soul of the deceased must not only face the hostilities of those of the other deceased whose sympathy he did not enjoy in life but if during his life he had been a hunter he will have to be very careful with the nyamasIn order for his transit to the afterlife to be favorable to him, society makes the zoomorf masks participate in funeral dances so that they can clear the way and thus facilitate their passage into the afterlife.

This animal mask represents a hare although it is often confused with the hyena mask, very similar. The hare is, par excellence, the most cunning animal in African literature, for example "Petit Bodiel" by Amadou Hampâté Bâ. It is a mask of hunter cover by young initiates who stage an initiation dance in which they represent the confrontation of this cunning animal and the hunter. This mask is attributed therapeutic virtues especially in cases of epilepsy. This mask is used during the Lady, funeral ceremony to celebrate the departure of the soul of the deceased and the end of mourning. Several black and red spots characterize the polychrome of this mask of society.

Old patina.