Mask of the Dead

Mask used for ceremonies intended to worship the deceased. It is front page by the older members, that is to say the Omone, from 47 years, age of wisdom and authority. These ceremonies are held when the elder has left this world and previous rituals corresponding to them come into this category of “okoto” or “antecedent”. This mask wears a python snake surrounding the face, the snake and especially the python has a great symbolism in most African ethnicities and plays an important role in many of its traditions and cosmogony. It is true that this animal is omnipresent in Africa and particularly in the Bissago Islands, apparently one of the corners of Africa where this reptile is most abundant, which appears in most masks and ritual objects carved by its inhabitants. Bidjogo.

But the bidjogo python is particular, it is presented in the most diverse forms, elongated, short and robust and often with a crest over the head that sometimes confers on it the appearance of a dragon.

If masks with figures of animals, bovids, fish, or reptiles are frequent, the masks with human representations are rare, and even more so those that have managed to leave the environment of Bidjogo.

Mask of extreme rarity as are its few known masks with human faces, contrary to its known masks of bovids and aquatic animals. The python snake very present in the bidjogo culture appears in this mask shaping the profile of the face. Interestingly, the serpent's head passes through his open mouth, a symbol whose sense we do not know. This type of anthropomorphic face masks are used in some initiations and funeral rites