Rare Mask - Bijagos - Guinea-Bissau

The Bidjogo mask from Guinea-Bissau, called Dugn’be, represents the domestic ox. Among the Bidjogo, the emergence of masks accompanies different collective events: the return from fieldwork, visits by strangers, commemorations or ritual ceremonies. The bovine masks also take part in male initiation rites. The heavier masks are worn by the younger initiates; they then symbolize the physical strength of the young man, still considered “immature” until he has received the full set of teachings transmitted during the initiation.

The Bidjogo live in the Bijagos Archipelago, off the coast of Guinea-Bissau. They create, in a realistic style, different types of zoomorphic masks, each associated with a specific age class and revealing the social status of its wearer. These masks are worn by boys and young men during ceremonies that mark the different stages of initiation. Outside the ritual framework, they are today also presented at secular festivities, historical commemorations, or official visits.

The most widespread masks represent ox heads, called in Creole vaca bruto. The shape and features of these heads allow distinguishing several categories of masks. The gn’opara, worn by boys of the earliest age classes, features a wild cow with long horns born in the bush. The dugn’be, associated with the third age class, represents a domesticated ox, as evidenced by its pierced nostrils. The mask-helmet presented here belongs to this category. Its stout head is adorned with real ox horns, with glass eyes set in, as well as nostrils pierced by a cord. The white triangular mark visible at the top of the head corresponds to a sacred symbol widely spread in West Africa as well as in ancient Mediterranean civilizations.

A third type, the essenie or essie mask, mainly present on the Formosa and Uno islands, is distinguished by a massive head, imposing folds of fat at the nape and, sometimes, an open mouth letting a red tongue hang out. It embodies a wild bull intended to be domesticated during the initiation. Like the rare iare mask, entirely carved in wood and representing a zebu or a buffalo, the essenie mask is worn by young men preparing to enter the final phase of initiation.