Amongst the Bambara farmers in the savanna of Mali, two young men dance with such crests, known as ‘Chiwara’, before the seed-sowing season. With one female antelope dance crest and one male. The aim of the ritual is to increase and secure fertility. During the dance, the ‘Chiwara’ are fixed on to plaited caps. The present antelope crest shows the ‘classical’, high and vertical type of a ‘Chiwara’. With high towering horns, long ears and with the heavy mane of a male hippotragina (horse antelope). This ‘Chiwara’ dance crest is carved from very hard, heavy wood and coloured dark brown. Both tall horns of the male horse antelope are carved in fine spirals, the ears in cross-hatching. The long, narrow head terminates below in a small, pointed, open muzzle. The equally long and narrow face has inlaid eyes of metal and a long narrow nose, from which a small ring of coloured glass pearls hangs below. Also in each pierced ear hang each three similar rings of coloured glass pearls linked together. The antelope head wears on the forehead two brass rings, one on each of the temples, and three brass rings each along the horns, as decoration. On its cheeks the ‘Chiwara’ wears pieces of brass sheet with serrated borders, and at the front, on its chest, a round, green oxidised metal disc is nailed on. The neck and mane of the antelope male are represented in three elegantly curved, openwork bands with struts and triangles. The stylised mane rests on the outer band. Important surfaces of the antelope crest, such as the forehead, neck, mane and legs, are decorated with fine chip-carving relief. With lines and small, dotted triangles. This ‘Chiwara antelope’ has a very good, brown-black shiny patina as a result of protracted use, as well as minor age damage: a break at the tip of one of the horns (glued), a break and fracture, each smaller, at the neck and mane, an old crack in the left rear leg, and three minimal holes in the horns. Otherwise no damage. H: 70 cm; L: 23 cm. (ME)

Provenance: German Private Collection.

Lit.: ‘Bamana. Afrikanische Kunst aus Mali’ by Jean-Paul Colleyn, Rietberg Museum Zurich, fig. 187, 188, 190, 192; 'Bamana' by J.-P. Colleyn, fig. 40.

additional image:
DANCER of the Bambara with a Chiwara dancing headgear and wearing a full-body costume. The headgear, in the form of a male horse-antelope, displays the same Chiwara type as Cat. No. 15 in this Tribal Art Auction. The photograph was taken in 1985 in the village of Dyele in Mali.
Photo from: “Bamana” by Jean-Paul Colleyn