Mask - Mali (No reserve price)

Old zoomorphic caryatid stool, lacquered with a jone painting featuring colorful motifs. Abrasions. The Bozo, fishermen and farmers for the most part, live in the northern part of the country in the inner Niger delta and remain to this day semi-nomadic, moving their dwellings with the seasonal floods. A Mandé-speaking people, they speak Sorogama. Within their group, one distinguishes the Sorko or Sorogo, the Hain, and the Tie. Besides their remarkable masks, the Bozo and the Bambara are reputed for their puppets of varying sizes and frequently articulated, exhibited during the Sogow bo puppet theater which is organized at the initiative of village youths, mainly in the Segou region, and which plays an educational role.

The invention of these puppets is attributed to the geniuses of the