Mali, Sanga region, wood, leather, 96 cm high. Small indigenous restoration. One of the finest examples of a Kanaga mask with a razor thin nose and fine details. Kanaga masks are worn at rituals called the Dama, transferring the souls of deceased family members away from the village and, at the same time, enhancing the prestige of the deceased. In 1935, French anthropologist Marcel Griaule witnessed a Dama ritual in which twenty-nine out of a total of seventy-four masks were of the Kanaga type. These masks are characterised by a wooden superstructure in the form of a double-barred cross with short vertical elements projecting from the tips of each horizontal bar. 'During the time spent by Griaule among the Dogon studying their complex belief system, he was initially told that the Kanaga mask represents a bird with white wings and black forehead, but he later came to see this literal interpretation as a characteristic of the first level of knowledge, that of the uninitiated. The deeper meaning of the Kanaga mask apparently pertains both to God, the crossbars being his arms and legs, and to the arrangement of the universe, with the upper crossbar representing the sky and the lower one the earth. The disparity between these two interpretations illustrates the gaps in our understanding of Dogon art.' AHDC

Provenance:
Dr. J. B. Bedaux, Belgium.