Mask "zauli" ·  Côte d'Ivoire, Guro · ID: 3038078

Description

wood, greyish brown patina, black paint, kaolin, narrow face with delicate facial features, prominent mouth with puckered lips, eyes with lowered lids, superstructure in shape of a cock, min. dam., minor missing parts (both ears, left eye, rim backside), breakage (right leg/wing of the cock), rep. (right eyebrow), abrasion;
“zauli” is the most widespread entertainment masquerade of the Guro people, employing colorful face masks with complex top attachments. Guro historians often called “zauli” mask-beings “djela lu zauli” i. e. “zauli”, daughter of “djela”, thus implying a direct descent from “zamble” and “gu” and their daughter “djela”.The story of “zaulis” appearance involves a father who is so attached to his beautiful daughter that he takes her with him to the sacred forest. There she dies and a mask is created to commemorate her.

Comparing literature

Fischer, Eberhard, Guro, Masks, Munich, Berlin, London, New York 2008, p. 294 & ill. 447