Mossi Karanga Mask
$1,295
Mossi Karanga Mask
This mask, known as a Karanga mask, depicts the large antelope (Hippotragus koba). The Karanga mask is the most prominent masquerade in Bobo, Bwa, Kurumba, Mossi of Burkina Faso.
Dimensions (H) cm (W) cm (D) cm
(As this item is long it is not covered by our free shipping offer)
Description
Mossi Karanga Mask
This type of mask is produced exclusively in the northeastern area of Mossi country, in the Yatenga region, where two distinct varieties of antelope reside. This mask, known as a Karanga mask, depicts the large antelope (Hippotragus koba). The Karanga mask is the region’s most prominent masquerade.
In Mossi society, the male head of a clan often owns a mask that evokes an important being or animal associated with his family’s origin myth. The clan and its totemic animal are profoundly and inextricably linked. They share the same life force, and each clan member’s soul is inseparable from the clanic animal. Totemic masks like this one are intended to serve as direct lines of communication between their owners and the founding members of their extended family. Each year the clan applies libations to its masks at a community ritual which occurs in May just before the beginning of the rainy season. Appeals are made for an early and abundant rainy season as well as for the general well-being of the entire clan during the coming year.
Mossi masks, so central to a family’s founding as well as to its more recent past, present, and future, also play a prominent role in assuring a smooth transition to the afterlife. During the burial of any male or female clan elder, masks escort the body to the grave and ensure that all burial procedures are properly followed. At the conclusion of the rites, the spirits’ union with clan ancestors is joyfully celebrated with dances in which performers imitate the motions of the animals their masks depict.
