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Description

Brown wood helmet mask of an animal with bulbous eyes, ears, and horns. Large open mouth with jaws and very large teeth, five and six pairs deep. Upper teeth have incised diagonal lines. Fabric band across the forehead decorated with cowrie shells and extends back around the top of the head where a horn is attached at either side. Inside and back are filled with a light brown raffia-like material.

Iconographic Meaning

The horned antelope is an important symbol of power and magic in Senufo society.

History Of Use

Kponyungo (funeral head masks) are zoomorphic helmet masks that are worn during funerary masquerades by Senior Grade members of a village's Poro society. The masquerades are organized by the Poro society and they serve to honour the dead and ensure continuity between the living and ancestral dead, and to separate the corpse from its spirit (nyui). The nyui is believed to live on after death and must be guided to the village of the dead, where it may be reborn as an ancestral spirit. Should the proper funeral procedures not be observed, the separation will not take place and the nyui will remain in the village and bring misfortune to the descendants of the deceased. The kponyungo masked performer (kporo) often wears a double-membrane barrel drum in addition to a fibre costume. During funerary masquerades, the corpse is sewn into funerary cloths gifted by those with ties to the dead. Once this is done, drums sound from the sacred grove of the Poro to announce the arrival of the kponyungo mask, and which signals that uninitiated persons (women, children, and youth who are not initiated in Poro) must leave the area. The kporo kneels in front of the body and strikes his drum. He then puts the drum on top of the chest of the deceased and strikes the drum three more times. This act separates the deceased’s nyui from the corpse. The kporo repeats his actions the next day, with the body of the deceased replaced by a wooden stick wrapped in cloth.