Mask
Geometric designs carved and painted red or white.
Label reads" Gurunsi mask. Burkina Faso, Gurunsa tribe"
- Object: Mask
- Artist: -
- Circa: -
- Dimensions: 21"H x 7.5"W
- Culture Area: Africa; Burkina Faso
- Cultural Group: Gurunsi
- Cultural Context: The Gurunsi people of the Burkina Faso region consist of many sub-divided groups of people, including the Gurensi, Kasena, Lyele, Nuna, Nunuma, Sisala, and Winiama. These people live north of Ghana in western Africa, and are well known for three particular typed of stylized animal mask. This mask probably was made by the Gurunsi living in the southwestern region of their living ranges, who are famous for their animal masks and brilliant coloring. From a scanned in-house sign, author unknown: Contemporary Gurunsi people inhabit Burkina Faso and Ghana. According to oral tribal stories, they originated in the Western Sudan and later settled in Burkina Faso around 1100 CE. Gurunsi make masks that represent the spirits of the bush that incarnate the spirit Su-the spirit tasked to take care of man. Most are made in an abstract form of animals, usually colored in red, black, and white, because they represent only the spirit of the animals and not the animals themselves. The mask's role is important during ceremonies at the end of initiations, at the funerals of important people in the community, and as entertainment on some market days. Depending on the villages, the initiation rite buzuyu takes place every three, five, or seven years for young boys who are taught about the masks and how to use them. Initiation lasts two weeks: the young boys wear the Gurunsi masks while fighting each other and take physical, moral, and intellectual tests. In the end, the masks return to the village and are put on the shrine to Su, to whom offerings are presented. A mask will, upon the owner's death, be given to his son, or kept in the hut of the ancestors of his family's lineage.
- Donor: Barbara & Hiro Narita
- Catalog #: 114.204