Mask with horns "kpan pre"
Hubert Caspers, Hamburg, Germany
Description
wood, dyed in red (therefore male type), black and white pigment, flat oval face with elongated nose bridge, carved and painted scarification marks, frameded by an abundant grass fibre cuff, crossbar backside for fixing the mask with the teeth, slightly dam., traces of insect caused damage, abrasion;
belonging to the family of the “kple-kple” masks which performed to honour the buffalo god “goli”. The “goli”-rite originally derives from the Wan, a small Mande group in the northwestern Baule area. In the Baule version of the Goli dance four pairs of masks appear two by two in a fixed order: first a pair of disc-faced masks (usually called “kple kple”), next a pair of animal helmet masks “goli glen”, third a pair of horned face masks “kpan pre”, and finally two human-faced masks with crested hairdos “kpan”. Within each pair, the masks and costumes are nearly identical, but the masks of the “kple kple” and “kpan pre” pairs are distinguished by color: the male mask is painted red, the female black.