Dance headdress "zigiren wonde" ·  Guinea, Baga · ID: 3036163

Description

wood, partly shiny blackish brown patina, red pigment remains, metal sheet, female bust with prominent breasts, rising from a board-shaped base with forked projections, necklace with bell pendant, handwritten collection number “14GA” at the back, rep. (breakage left foot), cracks, traces of abrasion;
“zigiren wonde” means “the young bride” and represents a married woman who has given birth to children. Thus her breasts are long, though rarely flat. She is a cultivated woman, with scarification patterns around her neck and breasts and often rings around her neck.

Comparing literature

Robbins, Warren M. & Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, o.O. 1989, p. 141, ill. 239 Lamp, Frederick, Art of the Baga, New York 1996, p. 167