A Senufo Kpelié Bronze-Mask

A Senufo Kpelié Bronze-Mask, the oval face with crescent scarifications around the mouth and the cheeks, a domed forehead beneath the sculpture of a woman, pierced through at the rim for attachments; dark to shiny patina, partly blackened oxidised, collected in the vicinity of Korhogo, Ivory Coast.

Kpelie-masks were worn during funeral sessions By the Poro society. These funeral festivities are marked by masquerades, which symbolically expresses the fundamental dualities in Senufo Thought: mal/female, body, spitit, life/death. In general this type of mask is symbolizing an ideal woman. The unique features which characterize the Kpelie mask include elongated flanges radiating from the bottom part of the mask, which are a reference to the hornbill bird. The horns on the mask refer to the ram, an important sacrificial animal. The nodules on the forehead represent palm nuts as well as vulvas; they are flanked by cicatrization marks that symbolize the twins born to the primordial couple.The significance of the double face are not known, but double- and single- faced Kpelie are used interchangably. A Doublehead Senufo Kpelie Mask

Holas, B., L'Art Sacré Sénoufo, Limoges, 1978, Facing the Mask, Herreman, Frank, Museum for African Art. s. publ.



Till Foerster, Divination bei den Kafibele-Senufo, Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin, available at our bookshop

Height: 25 cm
Weight: 600 g