Hare Mask

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 usually 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 from the willows before he ate it and took it 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 or nyama not only must face the hostilities of the nyama of other deceased whose sympathy he did not enjoy in life but if during his life he had been a hunter he would have to be very careful with the nyama of the animals that he has killed, so that his transit to the afterlife will be favorable to society Awa engages in funeral dances to the zoomorf masks so that they clear the way and thus facilitate their passage into the afterlife.

This animal mask represents a hyena although it is often confused with the hare mask, very similar, especially if it bears the stains. The hare is, par excellence, the most cunning animal in African literature, for example "Petit Bodiel" by Amadou Hampâté Bâ, without emarchment the hyena is presented in African literature as a foolish animal. It is a mask of hunter cover by young initiates who stage an initiation dance in which they represent the confrontation of this 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.