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Background information
Made by: Individual maker unknown The Bwa people live in central Burkina Faso. Their religious laws are shown on the great plank masks with which they perform in the villages several times each year. The masks embody the spirits of the wilderness, which intervene with the forces of nature to provide health and well being to the community. The masks weigh more than twenty five kilograms each and only the strongest young men, who have strengthened their neck muscles by months of practice, can wear them. These masks play an important role in the initiations of young men and women, when the men practice wearing the masks and the women learn the songs that accompany the mask performances. The masks also appear at funerals and the memorial services that follow them. The performer hops from foot to foot, kicking the free foot twice in the air forward and back. After a dozen steps the performer plants his feet firmly and grasps the short handle that projects downwards from the oval face of the mask. Twisting his head and neck as far to the right as possible he rotates his body in the opposite direction which makes the mask rotate 360 degrees to the left and then quickly back again. This is repeated two or three times, often with such force that the performer staggers with the momentum of the mask. Immediately after each masks performance the elders in the audience, especially the women relatives of the performer, raise the performer's hands above his head in a gesture of praise for the skill of his dance. When elders commission a mask, the patterns that are to be carved are described carefully to the artist. The symbols have a number of different meanings that vary between villages and can also depend on which other patterns are nearby and the level of knowledge of the viewer. Some of the patterns include: Small black triangles - Antelope hoof prints |