Dan Face Mask

A Dan face mask’s use and the costume that accompanied it are important elements that contribute to the name it receives. While we don’t know those details, we can say it originally had an elaborate fiber hairstyle attached through the holes around the edge. Based on its appearance and other similar examples, this face mask with a high forehead in northern Dan style may have been called either sagbwe or gunyege. As a “runner mask,” it was engaged in running competitions once organized every Sunday during the dry season. As a “fire-watcher,” its main task was to protect the village from fire when the dangerous desert wind called Harmattan blew during the dry season.

Catalogued by Cleveland Museum of Art as “Face Mask”, dated possibly early 1900s. Harvested from the museum’s open-access record; every field below is copied from that record and none of it has been inferred.