Mossi Two-Faced Headcrest Burkina Faso

Mossi masks are identified with the spirits of the bush during ceremonies reinforcing the relationship between these spirits and the community. The Mossi are the dominant culture in Burkina Faso. Like their relatives, the Bobo, the Mossi consist primarily of farmers. Since they live in a hostile region of arid savannas, the Mossi have developed an elaborate series of purification rituals in order to ensure adequate rainfall. Masked dances have the essential function of mediating evil, and reinstating a balance between the sun, earth, and rain. At the end of the dry season, prior to the harvest, purification ceremonies take place, using impressive masks of fiber and wood, carved into forms representing the totemic spirits of the village: warthog, male buffalo, rooster, hornbill, fish, antelope, serpent, and hawk. Together they incarnate the forces of fertility, abundance, and growth. Among the Mossi, the sacredness of the mask derives from the fact that magic forces are considered to be present in the mask and, through it, to be acting on behalf of the villagers

The Mossi are today the largest single group living in Burkina Faso. They originated from horsemen who made their way north from present-day Ghana during the 1500s. Mossi are renowned for their masquerades and the use of large superbly sculpted and brightly painted masks and colorful costumes. Among the Mossi, elders are highly honored with elaborate funerals and the appearance of masked dancers with masks representing ancestors and various spirits and forces of Nature in dramatic and often vigorous dances. Sculpted figures known as Ninande (pl.) have a number of functions and It is difficult to establish the use of a figure without specific knowledge of its use.

From the Collection of Robert Pearson, Denver, Colorado

Bob Pearson began collecting African art later in his life. He was an engineer, inveterate climber, and long-time collector of books and paintings. Spurred by the Douglas Society at the Denver Museum of Art, and his friendship with noted collector George Heggarty, he began building an enormous, eclectic collection. His African art library grew to several hundred books. He loved textiles and things that had domestic use, like spoons, cups, stools, and chairs, as well as masks and carvings. His collection included items from more than thirty African countries, and his fine eye gave him pieces ranging from a gold dust scale to huge Dogon figural ladders. Africa Direct is honored to have been chosen to sell them.

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