Parure corporelle pour garcons de la société du "poro"
Emil Storrer, Zurich, Switzerland
Description
wood, greyish brown patina, the face nearly entirely covered by cloth (which conceals the powerful magical loading), fixed by cord, which is spread with clay-like encrusted mass and metal hooks, slightly dam., insect caused missing parts (above all in chin area/backside).
Neill Carey attributed these masks to the Koranko, a Mande-speaking people living in the mountainous region of the Guinea Highlands. These masks are used in their “poro” rituals. Like all “poro” masks they incarnate bush spirits, called “nyenne”. Only powerful medicine men, belonging to the upper levels of “poro”, are allowed to wear them. They are affixed to the back of the masquerader in a vertical position. Carey distinguished three types of body masks, one for boys, one for men and one for elders. Present mask represents a boys “poro” mask, which is indicated by the one phallic central horn, which is surrounded by the two inwardly curved horns. This mask is present at the “birike”, the initiation ritual of young boys when they first enter the Sacred Bush.