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Bamana Chi Wara Mask: The Antelope Headdress of Mali
The Chi Wara headdress is among the most iconic forms in African art. Learn about the agricultural ceremonies it accompanies and the Bamana people who create it.
The Chi Wara headdress is among the most iconic forms in African art. Learn about the agricultural ceremonies it accompanies and the Bamana people who create it.
Carved to represent the idealised beauty of deceased maidens, the Agbogho Mmuo mask is one of Nigeria’s most graceful masquerade traditions.
The towering plank masks of the Bwa people are among the most visually arresting in African art. This guide explains their origin, symbolism, and ceremony.
New: the 2nd edition of Within Carved Lines: The Secret Meanings of African Masks is out now. Get the book → A number of masking traditions documented in this book use color to mark rank, age, or spiritual category. The Lumbo of southern and southwestern Gabon went further, building an entire moral division into a…
Isolation shapes art in ways that are easy to underestimate until you meet a tradition it happened to. The Mumuye, living in the rocky hills and savannas of northeastern Nigeria along the bend of the Benue River, remained in near total isolation until as recently as 1959, and their statuary was not even discovered by…