Headdress: Male Antelope (Ci Wara)
Culture: Bamana
Location: Mali, Bamako region
Date: 19th-early 20th century
Medium: Wood, metal bands, thread
(Photograph From ARTstor)
The Ci Wara comes from the Bamana peoples and is carved from wood. This tall, wooden, headdress resembles the profile of a roan antelope. The antelope is a symbol for farming and agriculture with the way it arches its neck just as the cultivators bend their backs. 6 The Ci Wara is often used in masquerades as having there be both a male and female mask. The Ci Wara is used to prepare young men for their future roles as husbands and fathers by pairing them with younger girls who become their partners. Ci wara masks appeared as one of several spiritual entities in the boys’ initiation as well as at the beginning of the agricultural cycle. 7
6 Monica Blackmun Visona, A History of Art in Africa. (Pentice Hall, 2001), 118.
7 Hope Werness, The Continuum Encyclopedia of Animal Symbolism in Art. (New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc.,2003), 12.