Siluro mask

 

It is one of the best known masks of the group Yatenga, very similar to the karanga masks and are part of those known as Iron masks. She mediates between the world of the living and the dead and evokes the human and divine dimension. He accompanies the deceased in their walk to their last abode. It is venerated in family altars.

The mask plate represents the tail of the fish. Siluro is a fish of important dimensions frequent in its rivers. Some òblados have a pool with sacred catfish in which the fetal spirits that are going to fertilize women reside, so sacrifices are made the altars erected next to the pond to request their intercession to favor women who have difficulty getting pregnant. According to their cosmogony all humans have been first catfish in the maternal viengtre. This more expensive is very important among the Gurunsi and the Winiama and is the first to appear at the festival of the celestial masks in the dry season.

Its wearer, dressed in wide cloths and leaves, holds it simply by biting a small stick that serves as a crossbar uniting the walls of the mask. Both its shape and its polychrome can be very varied.

It is very difficult to define precisely certain styles of an area where interaction between ethnic groups is very pronounced. A mask attributed to the Mossi may in certain cases belong to their relatives Bobo or have been made by some sculptor of the country Kurumba.