Hippopotamus Back Mask

The facial masks are undoubtedly the most used by all African ethnic groups, there are also numerous helmet and helmet masks, less known the shoulder masks used in dances by very few ethnic groups, but without any doubt that the least known for their rarity are the back masks, used by the Bidjogo of the Bissago Islands of Guinea-Bissau. Apparently it's the only town that wears this original type of masks. As almost all the masks of the Bidjogos are zoom masks representing a large number of animals, according to the ceremonies of the different age classes in which they participate, animals of unclear definition due to their unprocessed forms that are used in the early stages of initiation in which the neophytes are poorly formed until the initiations of young and vigorous men who will carry their animals totem, hippopotamus, snake, buffalo or shark fin, among others. These masks are worn by men and are fastened on the back by ropes.

Back mask that represents an animal that pretends to be a bull that use and time have made you lose your horns. He has no tail, his morphology is quite close to that of the hippopotamus. These masks like most bidjogo objects are very difficult to get. This mask is fastened on the back of its bearer, a young man from the initial group of the Cabaro , by means of strings, and dance at the end of this phase of initiation. Very damaged piece that has made an indigenous repair on one leg, much longer than the others. What is important in an African figure is not the materialization of what is represented but the idea of what is represented. The features are not represented, the concept is represented. It retains small traces of polychrome. It comes from the island of Urango Grande. Repair of a leg made by the proios bidjogos. Old patina.