A Ci Wara couple

A Ci Wara couple of the Beleko region, standing on rectangulare bases, the curved neck is decorated with aluminium nails in the same manner like the noses; blackened, glossy patina.

The Ci Wara couple from the Beleko region in southern Mali is generally associated with Bamana communities whose agrarian cosmology emphasises the cooperation of human skill and mythical animal force. In this area, paired figures tend to be conceived as a complementary unity rather than as two independent sculptures. The male element usually displays an elongated, forward-thrusting head crest with sharply rising horns, while the female is characterised by a more compact silhouette in which the antelope head is integrated into a vertical, almost architectural structure supporting a small anthropomorphic figure. This iconographic detail is read as an allusion to nurturance and the transmission of agricultural knowledge within lineages.

In the Beleko region, the formal vocabulary often reveals a pronounced linear tension. Carvers favour slim, tapering legs, a rhythmic play between voids and solids, and a tight geometric control over the dorsal superstructure. This structural clarity distinguishes Beleko works from the more heavily stylised Ci Wara ensembles of the Segou heartland, where sweeping, abstracted horn forms dominate. The Beleko idiom instead emphasises the antelope’s productive force through a certain restraint: the muzzle tends to be attenuated, the horns kept in a balanced ascent, and the dorsal lattice reduced to essential segments.

As performance objects, these sculptures originally served as headdresses worn by skilled dancers during the agricultural season. Their movements, imitating the labour of tilling and the spirited leaps of the mythic antelope, activated the iconography more fully than static viewing allows. The paired presence underscores the Bamana conception that successful cultivation requires a union of masculine initiative and feminine generative power, a principle materially enacted through the controlled contrast of the two forms. This duality was understood as a moral and productive ideal rather than a literal depiction of gendered beings.

Scholarly attention has noted that Beleko examples often preserve extensive surface abrasion from repeated use, a sign that these works remained active within community rites well into the twentieth century. Their patina—typically matte and fibrous—reflects the accumulation of vegetal substances linked to agricultural rites rather than the resinous coatings seen in other regions. The sculptures therefore present not only a stylistic variant but also a material index of local ritual practice.

¹ Dominique Zahan, The Bambara (London 1960), pp. 68–74.
² Jean-Paul Colleyn, Bamana: The Art of Existence in Mali (New York 2001), pp. 112–119.
³ Pascal James Imperato, Legends, Sorcerers, and Enchanted Lizards (Washington 1983), pp. 47–53.

Height: 66 cm / 60 cm
Weight: 880 g / 1 kg