Tribal Art

This African Mossi mask is coated with a thick clayey material imprisoning cowries and abrus seeds between two curved horns. It still has its thick vegetable fiber adornment. The bearer of the mask and his family worshiped the object through offerings such as millet beer, while invoking its protection.

The Mossi masks, personal or lineage, constitute an incarnation of tutelary spirits offering their support. They perform at burials, funerals of clan chiefs, protect crops. Their appearance is now frequent during entertainment shows. Upper Volta, Burkina Faso since independence, is made up of the descendants of the Nakomse invaders, horsemen from Ghana, and the Tengabibisi, descendants of the natives. Among them, farmers and blacksmiths, saaba, used masks, wando, receptacles of tutelary spirits, which often represented the animal totems of the clan.