Tribal Art

Guro mask (N° 21338)

Mask represented topped with an amulet like those that women inserted in their hair. It was used with Zamble and Zaouli, but is no longer used today. ("Guro", ed. 5Continents, pl.13) Numerous erosions.
Among the Mande group in the south, in central Côte d'Ivoire, on the banks of the Bandama, the Gouro are organized into lineages, and are the western neighbors of the Baoulé who have borrowed several features of their African tribal art creations. Animists, they have used since the 1950s a family of masks associated with the Zaouli dance. Indeed like the African Goli masks of the Baule, the set of Guro masks, relating to the genies of nature, comes in two zoomorphic masks followed by a third anthropomorphic one, which is considered the wife of the zamblé mask, the Gu. Priest and diviner share the predominant ritual functions among the Guro. The secret associations worship the genies of nature, through the masks in which the spirits are supposed to reside. Their protective spirits called zuzu were worshipped through statues placed on altars. The masks gu , gye and dye , in the hands of notables, were only displayed during major funerals or the enthronement of a chief (Kerchache)