Bwa Plank Mask of Burkina Faso: Insects, Spirits, and Geometric Art
The Bwa People of Burkina Faso
The Bwa — also known as the Bwaba — are a farming people of about 300,000 individuals living primarily in the central and western regions of Burkina Faso and adjacent parts of Mali. Unlike many of their neighbours, the Bwa have historically resisted Islam and Christianity, maintaining their traditional religious practices with remarkable consistency. This cultural conservatism has preserved one of the most distinctive and visually arresting masquerade traditions in West Africa: a system of large, horizontally extending plank masks that represent spirits of the bush and serve as mediators between the human world and the world of Dwo, the divine force that governs nature, morality, and social order.
Dwo and the Sacred Purpose of the Masks
Central to Bwa religious life is the concept of Dwo — a divine creative force that pervades the natural world and establishes the moral order of society. Dwo is neither a personal god nor a remote creator deity but something more like a living principle that manifests in the natural world and in the ceremonies that connect humans to that world. The masks of the Bwa are physical embodiments of Dwo: when a Bwa masquerade appears, Dwo is present, and the ceremony in which the masks perform is a direct encounter with divine power.
The Bwa hold major masquerade ceremonies twice a year — at the start of the farming season and at the harvest — marking the two great transitions of the agricultural year and invoking Dwo’s blessing on the community’s food supply. Masks also appear at funerals of community members and at initiation ceremonies. In each context, the masks serve as a bridge between human needs and divine power, asking for rain, fertility, protection, or guidance on behalf of the living, and conveying the dead to the world of the ancestors.
The Plank Mask: Form and Function
The most visually spectacular element of Bwa masquerade is the large plank mask, a distinctive form that sets Bwa masquerade apart from almost any other tradition in the world. These masks consist of a lower section representing a face — with geometric features, large circular eyes, and a beak-like nose or mouth — topped by an enormous flat rectangular plank extending vertically above the face, sometimes reaching heights of two to three metres in total. The entire surface, both face and plank, is covered in geometric patterns of black, white, and red.
The plank represents the world axis — the connection between earth and sky, between the human and the divine. The geometric patterns that cover its surface are not decorative but communicative: each pattern carries specific meaning within the Bwa symbolic vocabulary. The checkerboard pattern of black and white squares represents the moral structure of the universe — the alternation of good and evil, day and night, life and death. Diagonal zigzag lines represent the dangerous, unpredictable paths of the serpent or of Dwo itself. Concentric diamonds represent the moon and the management of time. Circles represent the sun. These patterns, read in combination, create a complex cosmological text that the initiated can interpret and that communicates the nature and purpose of the specific spirit being represented.
The Animals and Insects of the Plank Masks
Many Bwa plank masks are identified with specific animals or insects — the butterfly, the fish, the hawk, the serpent, the hornbill — and the specific creature represented determines the geometric vocabulary, the colour combinations, and the dance style of that particular mask. This zoomorphic system reflects the Bwa understanding of nature as a unified whole in which human beings, animals, plants, and spiritual forces are all expressions of the same underlying Dwo.
The butterfly mask is perhaps the most famous, with its enormous wing-like plank decorated in a geometric approximation of butterfly wing patterns. The butterfly represents the fragility and beauty of life, the annual cycle of transformation in nature, and the souls of the dead who, in some Bwa beliefs, take butterfly form. The fish mask represents water, fertility, and the life-giving power of rain. The hawk represents speed, predatory power, and the ability to see from a great height — qualities associated with Dwo’s all-seeing knowledge. Each creature in the system adds a distinct dimension to the community’s ongoing conversation with the divine world.
The Making of Bwa Masks
Bwa masks are made by specialist carvers who have acquired their skills through long apprenticeship and who understand the spiritual requirements of the carving process as well as its technical demands. The carving of a new plank mask is undertaken at the commission of a family or community group that has received instruction from Dwo through a diviner — specific mask types are commissioned to address specific community needs, and the diviner’s consultation establishes what kind of mask is required.
The wood most commonly used is that of the Lannea microcarpa tree, which is considered appropriate for masquerade objects. The carver works the green wood with iron tools while it is still soft, then allows it to dry before completing the surface treatment and painting. The geometric patterns are applied using natural pigments — charcoal for black, red ochre for red, white chalk or kaolin for white — sometimes mixed with vegetable binders. The bold, clear application of these pigments gives the finished masks their characteristic visual impact.
The production of a Bwa plank mask is not a secular craft exercise. The carver may observe dietary and sexual restrictions during the process, and prayers and offerings may be made at the beginning and end of the work. The completed mask requires consecration by a religious specialist before it is considered ready to serve as a vessel for Dwo.
The Dance and Costume
The full Bwa masquerade costume includes not just the carved mask and plank but an elaborate body covering of fibre, typically the dried stalks of sorghum or other plants woven or bundled together. This costume completely conceals the dancer’s identity, transforming him into a non-human being. The fibre costume is itself significant: it connects the masquerade to the agricultural world and to the plant world that is so central to Bwa life.
The dance style of the Bwa plank mask is highly athletic and demanding. The dancer must manipulate the heavy plank above his head while performing energetic spinning and leaping movements, demonstrating physical skill and strength while maintaining the controlled, meaningful gestures prescribed by tradition. The spinning of the plank mask creates a dramatic visual effect as the geometric patterns blur and blend, producing a kinetic version of the static cosmological text encoded in the mask’s surface.
The Bwa Mask Tradition Under Pressure
Like many traditional African religious systems, the Bwa masquerade tradition has faced pressure from both Christian and Islamic missionaries who regard the masks as objects of false religion. Some Bwa communities have converted to Christianity or Islam and abandoned the masquerades. Others have maintained the tradition as a cultural practice while adopting monotheistic religion alongside it — a pragmatic solution that reflects the Bwa capacity for synthesis and adaptation.
The international art market has also affected the tradition. Western collectors have sought Bwa masks since the early twentieth century, creating demand for both authentic ceremonial pieces and commercial replicas. This demand has economic benefits for some Bwa carvers but also creates pressure to sell masks that should remain in community use and risks the commercialisation and decontextualisation of a deeply spiritual tradition. The Bwa community’s best defence against these pressures is the vitality of the tradition itself — and that vitality remains remarkably strong.
