Mossi mask, wan liuli, Ouagadougou style, photo 1976 by Christopher D. Roy

The Art of Burkina Faso
By Christopher D. Roy
Professor of Art History
The University of Iowa
Copyright 2002 by Christopher D. Roy

MAP OF BURKINA FASO
Map of Mossi states
Art of Burkina Faso

The Physical Environment: The peoples that are discussed in this study live in the West African country named Burkina Faso. (Map of Burkina Faso) Since independence from France in 1960 to 1983, the country was known as Upper Volta. Following the military revolution of August, 1983 an increasingly anti-French administration attempted to do away with all traces of neo-colonialism, including all French names. The name Burkina Faso, from Mooré and Jula root words meaning "the land of upright and honest men", has replaced the original, geographically-based name. The citizens of Burkina Faso are called Burkinabé.

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country of about 274,200 square kilometers (about the size of the State of Colorado) just south of the great bend of the Niger River and 500 kilometers from the Bight of Benin. To the south along the coast are Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, and Benin (Dahomey). To the north and northwest lies Mali, and the eastern border is with Niger.

Burkina Faso is an enormous flat plain of red clay soils from 250 to 350 meters above sea-level, broken only by the valleys of the Volta Rivers, the Komoé, and small tributaries of the Bani and Niger Rivers. There are occasional spectacular outcroppings of rock, especially in the north, near Kongoussi and Tikaré, in the center near Boromo and Houndé, and in the west around Orodara. In the center of the country the Mossi Plateau, drained by the White Volta, reaches an altitude of 300 to 450 m. The Mossi Plateau rises, in steep bluffs, above the lower surrounding country. The river dissects the rest of the plain with deep valleys. The major rivers are the Komoé, which rises in the rocky escarpment between Banfora and Bobo-Dioulasso, and the Red, White, and Black Volta Rivers, all tributaries of a large system that drains most of the country. Of these, the Black Volta is the largest, and runs almost year-round. The White Volta is dry much of the year, especially north and west of Ouagadougou. The Red Volta is the shortest and the most intermittent of the three, joining the White Volta just south of the Ghana/Burkina. The Sankara government recently renamed the rivers Mouhoun (Black Volta), Nakanbé (White Volta), and Nazinon (Red Volta).

Burkina Faso spans three major climatic zones of the Western Sudan: north of a line from Ouahigouya to Dori the Sahel is characterized by very dry desert steppe, with low shrubs, many acacias and baobabs, much sand, and no permanent rivers. This area receives less than 700 millimeters of rain annually. The desertification of the region has been speeded up by the major droughts that began in 1970. South of the line from Ouahigouya to Dori is the "Northern Sudan" climate zone that receives from 1000 mm to 700 mm of annual rainfall. The area consists of open grasslands with scattered stands of shea nut or karité (Butyrospermum parkii), locust bean or néré (Parkia biglobosa), and West African mahogany (Kaya senegalensis), as well as occasional baobabs (Adansonia digitata) and kapok (Eriodendron anfranctuosum) trees. The southwestern quarter of the country is part of the Sudan/Guinean forested savanna area, with occasional thick forest cover and much denser undergrowth than is typical of central Burkina. Although the region receives as much as 1400 mm of rainfall each year, it only supports a population density of about 10 inhabitants per square kilometer.

Rainfall amounts vary considerably from year to year, and since the late 1950's there has been a steady decrease in averages.

As is true throughout the Western Sudan, the annual cycle is marked by a short rainy season that (normally) begins in May and early June and ends in September. In northern areas the rainy season begins later each year. All agricultural activity except harvest is carried out during this period. As in all agricultural areas, including Iowa, farmers are too busy during the growing season to carry out any activities except cultivating. During the long dry season from November to late April, almost no rain falls, however there are occasional showers in April causing some trees to leaf out and marking the time to begin clearing the fields for planting. Once the harvests have been gathered, people are left with a lot of free time to repair equipment and homes, to weave or make pottery, and to stage the elaborate religious festivals and initiations in which masks play an important role. The period of mask activity begins in February among the Mossi, and later, in April among the Bwa and Bobo, and continues until planting time. This is also the hottest time of the year, when the daytime temperature often is over 40^o C. (105^o F.), and it is not much cooler at night. The landscape is desolate, with grey or red dust and dust-covered vegetation to the horizon. Families retreat to the shade of the family dwellings, and livestock huddle in the sparse shade of the few scorched trees. Dust devils dance across the fields, and as the water level of wells drops, women must walk miles for a muddy bucketful. With the first heavy and frequent rains in June, the landscape is transformed, as roads become lined with dense green walls of millet and sorghum stalks seeming to submerge villages in a sea of vegetation.

The major economic activities in Burkina are farming and herding. The major traditional crops are pearl millet and red or white sorghum. Maize or corn has been grown since its arrival from the New World, as have peanuts and tobacco. Rice is grown in large modern plantations north of Bobo-Dioulasso. Although the Volta Rivers have been important for the rich valley soils they produced, farming has been almost impossible until recently because of the high incidence of fly-borne onchocerciasis or river blindness (see glossary, p. ). The major cash crop is cotton, important since before the colonial period when it was woven into cloth for trade with forest cultures to the south. The French have encouraged the growing of cotton to feed the textile mills near Bobo and Koudougou, often at the expense of food crops, disrupting traditional economic and social patterns. The major exports are fresh green-beans, peas, and mangoes to France.

The Sahel is the center of the livestock industry in Burkina. For a long time Burkina has been the major supplier of beef cattle and other livestock to the Ivory Coast and Ghana, where the tse-tse fly prevented livestock raising. This industry is now threatened by the establishment of livestock projects in northern Ivory Coast.

Although the area lacks significant mineral resources, the valley of the Black Volta River has been a source of gold for centuries. Deposits of manganese were discovered in the far northern Udalan area soon after independence, but foreign investors feel that the amounts are too low to justify the construction of a railway to export the mineral.

Human labor has been an important export that has fueled the economy of Ivory Coast. The railway from Abidjan to Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou was built to carry farmers idled by the dry season to the cocoa plantations and ports of the Ivory Coast.

Traditional subsistence economies, including hunting, gathering and fishing are still important for rural peoples, especially during the dry season. Women gather fruit and leaves of trees that grow in the bush, including wild raisin (Lannea oleosa), karité, and néré. In April and May all of the inhabitants of a community spend several days at nearby ponds harvesting fish with nets and large basketry traps. Each year during the dry season, great numbers of men hunt in the deep bush, forming large circles to drive game toward the center to be slaughtered.

Demography and Languages:

There are about sixty peoples in the region, of which about a dozen produce sculpture. The population (in 2002) is about 13,000,000. The major peoples in order of population are the Mossi, Fulani, Lobi, Bobo, Senufo and related peoples, gurunsi, Marka-Dafing, Bwa, Bisa, Samo, and Gurmantché.

Almost a third of the population is Mossi, who occupy the Mossi Plateau at the center of the country. The area supports a dense population, averaging from 20 to 50 inhabitants per square kilometer, but with some areas having up to 190 people/km², in part because there are adequate soils and rainfall for subsistence farming, but also because the region is relatively free of diseases such as trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness). The Mossi number 4,000,000. Their major towns are Ouagadougou, Ouahigoya, Koudougou, and Kaya. The large Mossi group comprises several subgroups, including the Nyonyose descendants of ancient farmers, the Nakomse descendants of invaders, and Saya smiths.

The Fulani, or Peul, comprise 10% of the population, or about 700,000 people. They live primarily in the Sahel (north), but migrate southward with their herds during the dry season.

The Lobi are among the longest established peoples in the upper Volta valley. The Lobi and related Birifor, Gan, Dian, Dorhosié and others live astride the frontier with Ivory Coast and Ghana. There are a total of about 160,000 Lobi in Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Burkina. About 500,000 Lobi and related peoples live in Burkina. Their major towns are Gaoua, and Kampti.

To the north of the Mossi are the Kurumba, who number about 780,000. Their principal towns are Titao, Djibo, and Arabinda. There are a few Dogon villages scattered over the dry plains of the northwest.

To the east are the Gurmantche, (about 350,000) who also live in neighboring Niger. Their major towns in Burkina are Fada N'Gourma, Bogandé, and Diapaga. The Gurmantche are descended from Jaba Lompo, a ruler who is said to have emigrated from northern Ghana at the time of the nakomsé invasion and established the kingdom of Fada N'Gurma, east of Koupéla, imposing himself as ruler over local farmers as the nakomsé did on the Mossi plateau. In contrast with the Mossi, the founding families of the Gurmantché political stratum have become so thoroughly integrated into local society that the ruler/subject hierarchy ceased to exist. I have seen no examples of Gurmantche sculpture, but research now underway may soon give us a better idea of what art forms they produce.

West and southwest of the Mossi are a number of peoples that are often called gurunsi; they call themselves Léla, Nunuma or Nuna, Winiama, Sisala, Nankana, and Kaséna. The total gurunsi population of Burkina is about 350,000. Boromo, Tenado, Pô, and Léo are their largest towns.

The Marka Dafing live northwest of the gurunsi around Dédougou, Nouna, Tougan, and Safané. Occupying a low brushy area between the Red and Black Volta, they number about 150,000. They are closely related to the Marka Soninké who live in Mali and number about 450,000.

West of the gurunsi live the Bwa who also extend into Mali. They number about 300,000, with 125,000 in Mali and 175,000 in Burkina Faso. Their major towns are Dédougou, Houndé, and Solenzo.

In the western quarter of Burkina Faso Bwa and Bobo communities blend all the way from the region just west of Diébougou in the south, through Solenzo in the north into Mali north of Boura. The Bobo number about 470,000 and their major community is Bobo-Dioulasso (over 100,000), the second city of Burkina Faso and the old French colonial capital. Farther north are large towns including Fo and Kouka, with Boura in the extreme north in Mali.

The Bolô are the northwestern neighbors of the Bobo, with a population of 6 to 7,000. The largest town is Ndorola.

In the far southwest of Burkina live the Senufo and related peoples, including the Syemu and Tusyâ. Tusyâ population is about 22,000.

The Mandé-speaking Samo and Bissa live northwest and southeast of the Mossi. The Bisa number 350,000 and live around Garango and Zabré. The Samo live between the Marka and the Mossi, around Tougan.

The Yarsé, who have been heavily assimilated with the Mossi, and the Jula have specialized in trade throughout the basin of the Volta Rivers for centuries. Both live in many commercial centers, with the Yarsé concentrated on the Mossi Plateau, and the Jula in the southwest.

The areas occupied by these peoples have been only roughly indicated, because frontiers between them are open and frequently crossed by peoples and ideas. Many disparate peoples may live in the same village.

These peoples may be divided into two major language groups: Voltaic or Gur, and Mandé. The Voltaic speakers include most of the groups east of the Black Volta--Mossi, Dogon, Kurumba, Gurmantche, Bwa, Tusyan, and gurunsi. The Mandé speakers live west of the Black Volta and include the Bobo, Bolô, Jula, Dafing, Bisa, and Samo. The Mossi speak Mooré, a language that bears striking similarities with the languages of groups in northern Ghana. The gurunsi speak variations of a common language.

The most important "lingua franca" in the area west of the Mossi is Jula, the language of Moslem traders.

French continues to be the official language of government and education.

History:

The history of the Basin of the Volta Rivers has been recorded in oral histories of local peoples, which were gathered by early visitors including Heinrich Barth, Leo Frobenius, and Louis Tauxier, as well as numerous colonial administrators and missionaries. There are sparse written descriptions in the Tarikh el-Fettach (16th century) and the Tarikh es-Sudan (17th century). More recently, Burkinabé scholars have collected and preserved oral histories of the many small, non-centralized groups that were ignored by early visitors. The history of the area is one of recurring conflict between peoples: on the one hand, people who have inhabited the region for many centuries, and who have preserved little or no trace of their emigration from some other area, and on the other hand, people whose oral histories tell of recent migration, penetrating regions of sparse population to subjugate the earlier settled farmers and to impose themselves as political rulers of large, centralized kingdoms or empires. The settled populations include both Voltaic and Mandé speakers, so it is an error to assume that one language family is associated with ancient inhabitants, and another with invaders.

Contemporary scholars agree that before 1500 the central basin of the Volta Rivers was inhabited by a number of small, essentially leaderless farmer groups that had occupied the land for centuries, but nevertheless were constantly making shifts and adjustments of location in the face of pressures from larger peoples all around them (e.g. the Mossi). These autochthonous peoples included the Kurumba and Dogon in the north, Nuna, Léla, Winiama, Kaséna, Sisala in the south, Bwa, Bobo, Lobi, and probably many Senufo-related peoples in the southwest and west.

The most dramatic event in the formation of the ethnic map we now recognize was the arrival of several groups of horsemen from the south, from the kingdoms of Dagomba, Gonja, and Mamprusi. (Mossi horsemen led by the Emperor) This invasion may have taken place in the late 1400's, or perhaps a century earlier. Displaced by lack of land, these younger sons rode into the basin of the Volta Rivers and conquered or expelled the relatively helpless farmers in the region, imposing themselves as rulers over a commoner population. The Mossi founded several kingdoms, of which the most important are the kingdoms of Ouagadougou and Yatenga. The king of the Mossi, called the Mogho Naba, has always lived in Ouagadougou.

The Mossi conquests, which depended on the force of light cavalry, were effectively limited by the boundaries of the Mossi plateau. Changes in climate and vegetation, resulting in the presence of trypanosomiasis, corresponded to these limits. Most of the Dogon population fled before the Mossi invasion and sought refuge in the Bandiagara cliffs, where Mossi horses could not follow. The Dogon who remained behind in the Mossi area were assimilated into Mossi society as Nyonyosé.

In the east, a Mossi king was established at Fada N'Gurma, with control of the Gurmantché. However, over several centuries the Mossi political leaders became assimilated into Gurmantché culture and Fada N'Gurma ceased to be a Mossi state.

In the 15th century the area of the Mossi Plateau southwest of the White Volta was occupied by gurunsi, who were conquered and amalgamated into Mossi society. The gurunsi west of the plateau resisted conquest with varying success for centuries. Known as powerful magicians, the gurunsi used their powers to drive off Mossi cavalry. The Nuna planted poisoned thorns in the ground; the Mossi countered by wearing thick sandals. In addition, the presence of sleeping sickness killed the Mossi horses, forcing the invaders to retreat.

The conquered peoples and the invading horsemen were welded into a new society called Mossi, and spoke the language of the conquerors, Mooré. The descendants of the invaders, a group called Nakomsé (children of the nam, or right and power to rule), became chiefs, kings, and emperors, called Nanamsé (sing. Naba). The descendants of the subjugated peoples were called Tengabisi, "children of the earth". The men who may have held some political power before the invasion became "earth-priests" responsible for the use of the land and the propitiation of the earth spirits.(Mossi cavalry capture slaves)

The invaders usually respected the cultural traditions of the conquered peoples, resulting in the survival of cultural idiosyncrasies within Mossi society.

Throughout this long period the southwestern area was considered a reservoir for slaves, and frequent raids bore gurunsi to the markets of Mali or the ports of the Guinea coast, whence they were sent to the Americas.

The Marka Dafing, moving from the northwest, settled in the basin of the Volta River after 1600.

In 1897 the French arrived, and for more than sixty years the region was part of the "Haute Sénégal et Niger." French occupation was punctuated by several revolts by peoples (especially Bwa and Bobo) who resisted taxation, the imposition of centralized rule, forced labor, and military conscription. Faced with the difficulties of administration from distant Abidjan during the 1930's, and later with the threat of dissection between Mali, Niger, and Ivory Coast, Mossi chiefs agitated for status as a separate territory after World War II, and when independence came in 1960, the territory became the République de Haute-Volta. The first president, Maurice Yameogo, served from 1960 to 1966 when he was accused of corruption and popularly deposed. After many years of military rule, his successor, General Sangoulé Lamizana, was elected to head a civilian government in 1979 which was soon overthrown by army officers led by Seye Zerbo. Zerbo's government was toppled by young officers including Jean-Baptiste Ouedraogo and Thomas Sankara in 1982. Finally, in August, 1983 Ouedraogo's forces were defeated in a counter revolution, and the government of Captain Thomas Sankara took control. In 1987 Sankara was murdered in a coup-d'etat and Blaise Campaore became chief of state, a position he still holds in 2002.

Mask Manufacture:

Burkina Faso is a land of masks; most of the major peoples in the region, with the notable exceptions of the Gurmantché and the Lobi, use masks. The materials and techniques used to fashion masks are quite similar throughout.

Although several types of wood are used to carve masks and figures, most masks throughout the region are carved from the wood of the Ceiba pentandra (Linn.) Gaertn., which is called "cotton tree","silk-cotton tree", or "ceiba". The wood is fairly soft and fine-grained, like pine, so it is easy to carve. It is very light, which makes it suitable for masks that are to be worn, especially big masks such as the tall Bwa serpent or enormous plank masks. Unfortunately, the wood is very susceptible to insect damage, and masks must be carefully protected by annual soaking to kill insects. These trees are becoming rare in central Burkina because of the carving of many masks, both for traditional use and for the tourist trade, and artists are obliged to travel long distances into game preserves or toward the north to find trees of a useful size. In contrast to earlier reports in the popular literature on African art, no group in Burkina use the wood of the kapok or baobab trees, for the grain of their wood is far too coarse and prone to splitting.

Among most of the peoples in Burkina Faso, masks are worn with a thick costume made of the fibers of the Hibiscus cannabinus or Cannabinus indica, which is called in French, "chanvre de Guinea" and in Jula "da", and kenaf in the United States. The plants are cultivated in fields of millet, and are harvested just before the annual period when masks perform. Bundles of the woody stems are carried to wet swampy areas where they are soaked, held down by stones, until the bark and pith rots, leaving only the fibers (bpon in Nuni). The loose fibers are plaited into cords which are knotted into a netlike body stocking. Bundles of loose fibers are then bound to the net to form a bulky costume that the Nuna call wankuro, "the fur of the mask." The fibers may be dyed before assembling the costume. Black is obtained from the fermented seed pods of the Acacia nilotica. Red is from the dye concentrated at the joints of the stalks of the millet Penisetum colorans. These costumes are usually renewed every year, and their manufacture is the major task of the young men's initiation groups. During periods of extreme drought, as in 1984-5, there is not enough standing water to make new costumes, and fewer masks may dance, or the costumes become rather disheveled. (Masks with hempen costumes)

Masks are covered with complex compositions of triangles, rectangles, crescents, dentate patterns, and other geometric shapes, which are carved or pyroengraved, and then colored red, black and white using natural vegetable or mineral pigments.(Geometric patterns on Bwa masks)

The most widely used mask pigments in the region are red, white, and black. Before the 1983 revolution the country's flag bore three horizontal band of red, black and white. The Bwa call red boré, white is opuni, and thin black is bobriay. For fifteen years I have questioned Mossi, Bwa, and gurunsi informants about the source of the white pigments used on masks, and I have been told consistently that traditional white is made by gathering the excrement of lizards (among the Mossi) or of the sacred Bwa serpent. Both may be found concentrated in dens or nests. Nontraditional white is made by grinding schoolroom chalk. Red is simply iron-rich (hematite) stone ground to a powder and mixed with a binder. The most widely used binders are egg and gum Arabic, which is gathered from acacia trees. The Bwa use a thick black that is expensive to produce, called gbonkahû, and a thin black that is less expensive called bobriay. The Bwa, Mossi, and gurunsi make thin black with powdered charcoal mixed with egg binder. The thick black is made by boiling the seed pods of the tree Acacia nilotica which the Mossi call pernenga and the Bwa call nyaoh, into a thick, tarry liquid.(Close up of the face of a Bwa plank mask)

Each year, after the crops are harvested but well before the performance season begins, all the masks in the village are carried to a swamp or river and are soaked, weighted down with large stones, for several weeks. Soaking kills the insects that could quickly destroy the masks, and removes the red and white pigments. Only the thick black remains, for it is not water soluble. Each time the masks are repainted by the young initiates, the black pigment grows thicker. To some extent the thickness of the black paint is an indicator of the age of the mask (but this can be deceptive).

In some villages masks are now being painted with European enamels, but this does not mean that the masks are necessarily new, any more than the thickness of the black indicates the adge of the mask. The Bobo have been using European pigments for decades, and many ancient Winiama and Nuna masks have been repainted recently.

In the basin of the Volta River, masks are owned and used by families. Masks are carved by artists from smith clans. Performances are organized by the families that own the masks, and the young men of each family wear their father's masks. The dry season is punctuated by numerous mask performances and dancers sometimes travel great distances to attend family or clan celebrations. Masks appear at the burials, funerals, and initiations of family members, and at other important occasions in the annual cycle of family life. Often masks perform purely for the enjoyment of the villagers, especially on market days.

Chapter III. Sculpture of the Mossi.

A. Introduction to the Mossi.

The Mossi (mosé, sing. mwaga, population about 2,200,000) occupy an area of about 30,000 square miles (63,500 sq. km.) in central Burkina Faso. The land of the Mossi (mogho) consists of a great plateau, lying between 1,000 and 1,500 feet above sea level, which is drained by the White Volta River. The limits of the Mossi Plateau form natural boundaries between the Mossi and their neighbors who occupy lower, less fertile land which is often ridden with tsetse flies and other vectors of disease (map ?: Burkina Faso). The Kurumba and Fulani live to the north, the Gurmantché to the east, the Bisa to the south east, the gurunsi to the south west, and the Samo to the north west. Major Mossi towns are Ouagadougou, Kongoussi, Koudougou, Gourcy, Kaya, Yako and Boulsa.

The Mossi area spans the transitional area between the dry sandy Sahel in the north and the humid tropical woodlands to the south. Average temerature is 25 degrees C. with adequate rainfall to support subsistence agriculture. The area was once covered with grassy open savannahs and scattered trees, but has been cleared by farmers for crops of millet, sorghum, and maize. Cotton and peanuts are grown for cash, and rice plantations have been started in river valleys recently cleared of river blindness by spraying insecticides. Some garden crops are grown for sale in Ouagadougou and for export to France, especially mangoes and green beans. Livestock is more important in the north, safe from trypanosomiasis, than in the south. Farmers own herds that are cared for by pastoralist Fulani in the north, who drive herds south during the dry season where they leave behind fertilizer on their way to markets in Ghana and Ivory Coast.

The Mossi speak Mooré. The Nyonyosé consider Mooré to be a "stranger language," although they use Mooré exclusively in day-to-day conversation even within their own families. They recognize that Mooré is not the language of the ancestors, and on ritual occasions, when addressing the ancestors, they use the secret languages, called nyonyoré, that are totally unintelligible to the rest of the Mossi community (i.e., to the Nakomsé). There are clear and striking similarities between the languages of the Mossi and peoples in northern Ghana. It is quite clear that the language spoken by the Mossi today was brought into the basin of the White Volta from Ghana by the Nakomsé invaders at the time of the founding of the first Mossi states.

Mossi society developed in the 15th to 16th centuries from the fusion of invaders from northern Ghana with local populations. The conquered peoples were amalgamated without regard for ethnic origin, forming a large heterogeneous Mossi people, in which the recent arrivals gradually intermarried with the daughters of older families, reinforcing social cohesion.

Each compound residence of an extended family is composed of a number of round, mud-brick huts, usually 3-4 meters in diameter, with conical straw roofs. A rectangular building with a flat, beaten earth roof, at the center of the compound, may be occupied by the senior male member of the family. Each wife lives in her own round hut with her young children. Older, unmarried children live together in separate huts. Within the compound are granaries, enclosures for domestic animals, and areas for grinding grain and preparing meals. The entire compound is surrounded by a mud-brick wall, the height and state of repair of which varies with the rank and wealth of the family.

As each of the original farmer peoples in the White Volta Basin was conquered by the invading horsemen, they were placed under the political authority of a Nakomsé lineage elder, the Tenganaba ("chief of the land") who collected taxes, raised armies in time of trouble with neighboring peoples, and maintained order within his region. The leaders of the Nyonyosé (i.e., senior male elders of the founding lineages) retained their authority as Tengsobadamba ("earth priests"), in recognition of their roles as the original occupiers of the land. The Tengabisi segment of Mossi society is not homogeneous. The Tengabisi may be divided into smaller groups based largely on occupation. The Saaba (sing. Saya) are smiths, and are organized in communities of endogamous patrilocal clans, led by the senior male member of the founding clan of the community, the Saya Naba ("smith chief"). Other neighborhoods in a Mossi village may be inhabited by families of Moslem Mandé weavers, called Yarsé, or by the Silmi-Mossi, a group formed by intermarriage between the Mossi and the Fulani herders (Silmisi).

In addition, the Nyonyosé themselves are far from homogeneous culturally. As noted by Robert Pageard in his study of the Nyonyosé (1963: 9), it is an error to equate the Nyonyosé with a specific ethnic group, as Tauxier (1917) and Hammond (1966: 168) equated them with the Fulsé (Kurumba). In each area of Mossi country the origins of the Nyonyosé are different, and there are marked differences in many cultural elements, including mask carving styles. IT IS A SERIOUS MISTAKE TO DESCRIBE A "NYONYOSÉ TRIBE", OR THE "ART OF THE NYONYOSÉ" BECAUSE THE NYONYOSE DO NOT EXIST OUTSIDE MOSSI SOCIETY. ALL NYONYOSÉ ARE MOSSI. At the same time, it is a mistake to assume that all segments of Mossi society are culturally identical, for the differences between the Nakomsé and the Tengabisi are striking; only the Tengabisi use masks, and only the Nakomsé use figures in the context of political celebrations.

Although they adopted the language of the conquerors, many of the cultural traditions of the Nyonyosé were preserved, quite distinctive from those of the conquerors, including their power to control the elements through the use of magic. Another tradition that survived the amalgamation of the Nakomsé and the Nyonyosé in a new Mossi society was the use of carved wooden masks that represent the animal totems and protective spirits of the Nyonyosé clans at the funerals of elders. It seems clear that the Nyonyosé were using masks when the invaders from the south arrived. Although there is no documentary evidence for this, there is ample evidence in oral traditions.

Both the Saaba (smiths) and the Nyonyosé (farmers) may be divided into groups that use totemic ancestral masks, and other peoples that do not use masks. Depending on the geographical area, the mask-using peoples are called Sikomcé, Sukomcé, or Sukwaba. In this study, I will refer to the mask owning smiths as Saaba/Sukwaba, and to the mask owning farmers as Nyonyosé/Sukwaba, although the people themselves do not combine the terms. In the southwest the distinctions between farmer and smith clans that use masks and those that do not is clear, while in the north the situation is more complex. In the north the names Sukwaba and Sikomcé are not used.

The Mossi are both exogamous and patrilineal; smiths marry within their caste group. The basic unit of society is the yiri, the polygamous (more than one wife) nuclear family with a single adult male head, the yirisoba. Several families live together in a single large compound residence called a zaka, with the oldest male, the zaksoba, at its head. Several compound residences in a single neighborhood comprise an exogamous totemic patriclan, called a budu. The budu, with the budkasma, the oldest clan male, is the most important Mossi kinship unit for this study, because the use and ownership, as well as the actual form, of Mossi masks is based on identification with a particular totemic patriclan. The word budu is also used to identify the segment of Mossi society to which a clan belongs: e.g. Nyonyosé descendants of original farmers, Nakomsé political hierarchy, Silmi-Mossi herders, etc.

Each village is composed of several large neighborhoods, each of which is inhabited by members of the same sub-group in Mossi society. The Nakomsé, relatives of the village political chief (Naba), live in compounds grouped close to the chief's own dwelling. Within each Mossi neighborhood, individual family compound dwellings are usually widely spaced, with broad expanses of open fields between them, so that the community may appear to be a number of small, walled towns.

1. Religion

Fully 70 percent of all Mossi practice their traditional, animist religion. Only 25 percent have become Moslem, and the remaining 5 percent are Christian. The majority of the Moslems and Christians live in urban centers, where their religious affiliation has allowed them access to commerce and government service. An important result of the resistance of the rural Mossi to Islam and Christianity has been the survival of the use of traditional masks and figures to the present. (Mosque in central Burkina)

The Mossi believe in a single, supreme, otiose creator being, named Wendé, who animates all aspects of the environment with his force. The religious beliefs of the Mossi are concerned with the control of the supernatural forces which vitalize every aspect of their natural environment.

The Mossi believe that each person posesses a soul, sigha, which takes the name kyma after death. Eugene Mangin (1921: 84-5) describes the relationship between the Mossi clan and the clan's totemic animal:

This spirit, according to the Mossi, is an animal, frequently invisible, a serpent, crocodile, antelope, rabbit. The soul is related to this animal, it is of the same family, so that to kill a serpent or crocodile or whatever in a village where the soul of the inhabitants is a serpent or crocodile is to kill a human in the village, because every person related to the snake has, in the village, a snake which represents him, and he will die when his soul-animal dies.

This is a description of the animal totem, which is the same for all members of the clan. The animal which is the totem of the Mossi clan is inseparable from the souls of the living clan members, and from the souls (sigha, pl. sisé) of the clan's ancestors. When a member of the clan addresses his sigha he is addressing both the animal-totem and the souls of his ancestors. This totem plays a role in the myth of the origin of the clan, usually providing help for the clan's founding ancestor. Dim Delobsom, a self-appointed official historian of the court of the Mogho-Naba (Emperor of the Mossi) writing in the 1920's, provides information on the totem of a Nyonyosé clan from Goupana, north of Ouagadougou (1929: 434-5):

The Nyonyosé of Goupana have the gazelle as their totem. This animal represents, they say, their siga. Therefore it is forbidden to kill the gazelle, but there is no interdiction about eating the flesh of the gazelle itself. Tradition has it, in effect, that it is by divine intervention, and coincidence, that the animal exposes itself to the arrow or gun of a member of the clan, but, it is added, one is sure to see an inhabitant of the village die shortly thereafter.

Legend says that a Nyonyoga hunter from the same clan as the Nyonyosé of Goupana, having gone hunting, became so thirsty that he fainted. A gazelle saw him and grew concerned, and drew near, placing on his shoulder a hoof which she had moistened in some water. At the touch of the damp hoof, the man regained consciousness and saw the gazelle run off before him. He was too weak to raise his weapon, but it seemed to him that the animal was playing with him. He sat down. The animal returned and approached his hand, but as soon as he tried to touch it it fled. The hunter gained courage, and trying to ignore his fatigue, followed the animal to a spot where there was a spring of fresh water. He was able to refresh himself and to regain his strength. As a result he believed that he was related to the gazelle and he spread the news when he returned to his village. Since that time the inhabitants of Goupana have had the gazelle as their totem.

The Mossi are also concerned with maintaining good relations with the spirits of their ancestors, who are able to manipulate the forces of nature for their benefit or detriment. After death the spirits of the ancestors continue to take an interest in the affairs of their descendants, just as they did as living members of the group. In order to maintain good relations with the ancestral spirits, the living must adhere strictly to the traditional rules for proper behavior established by their grandfathers, the yabaramba. To stray from the yaba sooré--the way of the ancestors--is to risk arousing their anger; the ancestors may punish any important transgression with a disease, especially smallpox, with some physical infirmity, especially blindness, or with infertility. The primary link between the Mwaga and his ancestors is the senior male member of his lineage or clan.

The ancestors reward proper behavior and the careful observance of requisite propitiatory sacrifices by assuring the fertility of the fields, livestock, and wives, by sending ample rainfall during the growing season, and by assisting their descendants in any economic or social endeavor, for example trading expeditions to Ouagadougou, trips to find seasonal work on plantations in the Ivory Coast, or competitive examinations for jobs in the government. The Mossi believe that they are able to communicate their needs to the ancestors by offering sacrifices on the ancestral shrine of the lineage or clan, located in the ancestral spirit house (kimse roogo).

The principal intermediary between the Mossi and the forces that effect his life is the community "earth priest" or Tengsoba. Another important link in the chain of communication between the Mossi and the spirit world is the clan's totemic animal, which, in the case of the Nyonyosé clans in the north, and of the Sukwaba clans in the southwest, is represented by wooden masks which are placed on the ancestral shrines and are worn during the funerals of important clan elders.

Mossi Masks.

Mossi Mask Styles ("Style Distribution of Mossi Masks): Valuable descriptions of masks and the contexts in which they appeared were published early in the 20th century in the accounts of travellers, missionaries, and colonial administrators. All describe the performaers and the masks they wore as ouango. In more current orthography, wango is the Mooré word for all masks, from any area, regardless of material or function.

Lieutenant Lucien Marc (1909: 152,155), a French colonial officer in southern Mossi country before World War I, provides a useful description that has often been overlooked by scholars of African art:

Whenever a head of a household dies, immediately after the burial, they block the door to the house where he was lying and they open another exit, so that if he tries to return he will be confused. If it is a question of an important individual, a great funerary ceremony is held to which are invited all of the villages of the region. It is at these ceremonies that the `Ouangos' appear... The `Ouangos' comprise a rather mysterious fraternity. They have a secret language, and while they are singing, anyone who utters a word will certainly die within the year... I feel that it would be most interesting to attempt to study the `Ouangos' and their customs in greater detail than I have been able. I feel, in fact, that it is a question of a really ancient tradition, antedating the arrival of the Mossi [Nakomse] in the basin of the Volta, which these peoples found among the peoples they conquered. They preserved it, undoubtedly not daring to fight against it. In fact, one finds `Ouangos' everywhere among the gurunsi, and the `Dou' seen by Binger among the Bobos seem to me to be of the same origin. The totemic mask dancers depicted in certain photos from Desplanges remind me very much of the Mossi `Ouangos'.

The Mossi writer A.A. Dim Delobsom provides an additional description of masks he saw in the region of Ouagadougou in about 1930:

The `Waongo' is a mysterious being, half-animal, half spirit.

Delobsom's account is of particular interest because of its mention of the origin of the masks, the sacrifice of a dog, which is normal practice only in the southwest (not in Yatenga), and the mention of the name of the group which uses the masks--Nyonyose/Sukwaba. Like Marc, he mentions the use of a secret language.

Each mask represents an animal, wild or domestic, commonly seen in Mossi country. In some cases they represent human beings. These characters, whether animal or human, are all totemic, for they participate in the myths of origin of the clans that own them. In the southwest, the smaller Ouagadougou style masks worn by the Tengabisi may represent any of several animals, and the masks are addressed with the name of the animal represented, preceded by the contraction for wango, the word for mask. These totemic masks include the wan-silga (hawk), wan-pesego (ram), wan-nyaka (small antelope), wan-wid-pelego (large antelope), wan-rulugu (hornbill), wan-mwegha (human albino), and many others. In Yatenga, the tall, plank-topped masks carry over the facial portion of the mask the head and horns of the antelope that are the totems of the major Tengabisi clans in Yatenga. Yatenga style masks with bird forms above the face represent the bird totem of a Mossi clan in the same area . The head with short, S-shaped horns represents the small antelope that the Mossi call nyaka (Gazella rufifrons), and the head with longer, straight horns represents the larger antelope called wid-pelego (Hippotragus koba). This contrasts with information published by F.-H. Lem (1949: 19-20) that the mask with straight horns is male while the mask with curved horns is female.

The mask bears the name of the animal or person it represents, preceded by the prefix wan-, the contraction of wango, mask, so that the albino mask is called wan-mwegha, and the gazelle is wan-nyaka.

The Mossi are a diverse people. From one geographical region to the next, cultural differences between Mossi subgroups may be more striking than the differences between the Mossi and their neighbors. Cultural diversity is reflected in the great variety of Mossi sculptural styles. The boundaries of these style regions correspond approximately to the boundaries of the several Mossi kingdoms as they existed at the arrival of the French, I have used the names of these kingdoms as convenient "handles" for the mask styles. I have also given their corresponding compass coordinates. IT IS POSSIBLE TO USE THE MAP OF DISTRIBUTION OF MOSSI MASK STYLES AS A MAP OF THE DISTRIBUTION OF PEOPLES IN THE REGION BEFORE THE NAKOMSE CONQUEST IN 1500. IN THE CASE OF THE MOSSI, ART SERVES AS A PRIMARY DOCUMENT IN UNDERSTANDING MOSSI HISTORY, WHERE NO OTHER DOCUMENTS, ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXIST.(Map of Mossi mask styles)

There are at least three major Mossi mask styles and two additional substyles, plus innumerable local ideosyncratic traditions. These mask styles are:

a. The Ouagadougou (Southwestern) Style (Ouagadougou style mask)

b. The Northern Styles b.1. The Yatenga (Northwestern) Style b.2. The Risiam (Northcentral) Style b.3. The Kaya (Northeastern) Style (Yatenga style mask)

c. The Boulsa (Eastern) Style (Boulsa style masks in the village of Zeguedeguin)

The Southwestern Style corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Ouagadougou. Masks are small and represents animals, or occasionally, humans. The Northern Styles are divided into three substyles, corresponding to the ancient kingdoms of Yatenga, Risiam, and Kaya. Larger than Southwestern masks, those from the north are surmounted by a long, thin plank. Occasionally a figure is carved in front of the plank, or replaces it. Finally, the Eastern Style, in the Boulsa area, includes masks with semi-cylindrical faces painted white. All masks are worn with a fiber costume that varies in form from area to area.

Very few masks in collections outside of Africa retain any traces of the blackened fiber costume (bindu) with which they are worn in a traditional context. The costume is made by knotting long strands of fiber to a net foundation, which is in turn fastened to the mask through holes around the base of each mask. The same fiber is used by all peoples in Burkina, and is prepared in exactly the same way. The branches or twigs of the wild hibiscus (Hibiscus cannabinus), which the Mossi call beranga, are soaked in water to loosen the bark. The plants are then beaten with wooden mallets to separate the bark from the wood, and the long, stringy fibers obtained are blackened by soaking in mud at the bottom of stagnant pools. Some of the strands are twisted together to form cords from which the netted foundation garment is made, and to form a knotted collar around the base of the wooden mask. Otherwise, the strands of fiber trail loosely downward and the black costume completely hides the mask wearer so that the ensemble resembles an animated black haystack . In some villages the costume falls only to the performer's knees, but usually it extends to the ground.

Frequently both human and animal masks are provided with pyroengraved lines that slant across the cheek from the bridge of the nose. Additional burned-in markings forming a ladder-shape between the eyes and ears, and patterns on the cheeks, chin, and forehead represent traditional Mossi scars, and are generally referred to as such by informants. As is true of all Mossi masks, they are carved of a single piece of wood.

a. The Southwestern (Ouagadougou) Style.

The Mossi masks that are today produced in greatest numbers and that are most readily recognized by most Burkinabe have frequently been misattributed by Western art historians to peoples other than the Mossi, usually to the Bobo.

Although published descriptions of Ouagadougou Style masks are rare, they occur in the earliest descriptions of the Mossi. Lieutenant Marc, in his thesis on the Mossi, writes (1909: 152):

The `Ouangos' are dancers whose costume is made up of a large robe fabricated of fibers covering the entire body, and surmounted by a wooden mask painted red and black, representing, most frequently, the head of an animal. The masks that are used by the Mossi in the traditional kingdom of Ouagadougou southwest of the White Volta River, are small, wooden, animal masks, worn over the face or as crests on top of the head, or slanting on the forehead. They are decorated with geometric patterns burned into the wood and painted dark earth red, black, and matte white... The masks of the `Ouangos' are constructed in the greatest secrecy. They must be made from just one piece of wood, and the carver must not be seen before the work is completed.

Throughout his description of Ouagadougou style masks Marc uses the word ouango (or, in more current orthography, wango) to describe both the masks and the group that uses them. The same usage of the word by Tauxier in his 1917 publication, Le Noir de Yatenga was the source of the idea that Mossi masks are used by a secret "Wango Society." In fact, wango is the Mooré word for any mask in any material, context, region, or function. Although the people who wear masks are very secretive, masks belong to families, not to secret societies such as exist elsewhere in Africa.(Photo by Frobenius about 1912 of Ouagadougou style mask)

In 1930, Dim Delobsom described masks from the same region:

Although these descriptions are too general to provide much information on style, they are supplemented, happily, by a remarkable photograph taken between 1907 and 1908 by Leo Frobenius in the Ouagadougou area (Frobenius 1923: pl. 39, ill. ).

Masks in this style are generally small, between 35 cm. (14") to 65 cm. (25") long. Most are not provided with eyeholes, for they are not worn over the face. The exceptions are masks from the northwest area of this region, from the villages around Yako and Arbolle, which are rather more abstract than the animal masks near Ouagadougou, and which are often provided with three slits over each eye and are worn over the face. (Ouagadougou style masks belonging to three generations of one family)

Each of these masks is a stylized, abstract representation of an animal, but the degree of abstraction may vary considerably. The most stylized come from the area of Yako and Arbollé. On many masks the planes of the surface are quite flat and angular, and the anatomical characteristics of the animal represented are so generalized that it is sometimes difficult to recognize the type of animal that the carver intended to depict. In most cases, however, some feature of the animal's anatomy is clearly emphasized and serves as a visual key to the identity of the mask. Thin, S-shaped horns, round in section, with a narrow, pointed snout are found on antelope masks. The ram can be identified by its thick, crescent-shaped horns, often triangular in section, and by its heavy snout . One of the most common features on Mossi masks from this area is a trilobed crest that sweeps back from the top of the head. Combined with a beak, this is a characteristic of a bird mask . On rooster masks, the central lobe of this crest is ribbed to represent a rooster's comb . On hawk or eagle masks the central lobe is smooth and represents the bird's head-crest feathers . The same trilobed crest occurs on anthropomorphic masks, when the crest represents the lobed hairstyle commonly worn by women throughout the Western Sudan . The coiffure and carved crest are called gyonfo.

Masks from the southwestern Ouagadougou style area are heavily decorated with geometric shapes outlined with "poker-work" and colored red and white with flat-finish, mineral based pigments. Spiral markings on horns and broad geometric shapes are blackened with heated metal blades. The most commonly used shapes are rectangles sectioned by diagonals with alternating sections painted red and white, and alternating red and white triangles .

All traditional Mossi masks are provided with holes that permit the attachment of a fiber costume, but in the southwest there are no other provisions for straps, cords, bars of wood, or other means by which the masks might be firmly attached to the wearer's head. The masks are simply draped over the wearer, perched on top of the head with the heavy costume falling on all sides and holding the mask securely in place by its weight alone.

Small, red, white, and black animal masks in the Ouagadougou style are used in the Mossi regions southwest of the valley of the White Volta River. In this area, the limits of Mossi occupation are defined by a dramatic drop in elevation from the higher, more open Mossi Plateau to the lower, moister areas occupied by older peoples. In the region south of Manga, where the Red and White Volta rivers approach and eventually join, the low areas were very sparsely inhabited because of endemic onchocerciasis (river blindness) that blinded the population after long exposure, and which has only recently been eradicated by the use of insecticides.

b. The Northern Styles

The only significant description of Northern Style Mossi masks in use in a traditional context was published in 1917 by the French ethnographer and colonial administrator Louis Tauxier. Tauxier's description has been cited repeatedly over the past seventy years, and has often been badly misunderstood. Tauxier's very thorough and important study was the product of almost three years' labor in Yatenga, from September, 1913 to July, 1916. In the short section devoted to "Religious Societies" Tauxier writes:

A photograph of three tall Mossi masks taken in 1907 by Leo Frobenius (1923: pl. 38) shows quite clearly that the costume has remained relatively unchanged since the beginning of the century. (Photo of northern style masks about 1907 by Frobenius)

Based on their reading of Tauxier, a number of scholars have concluded that the Mossi do not have masks, that all Mossi masks are made by the Foulsé (Kurumba) and that the masks in the area are used by a "Wango Society." In fact, Tauxier meant that the Nakomsé political rulers do not use masks, that the Kurumba who have been dominated by the Nakomsé and have been integrated into Mossi society make and use masks, and that the masks and the people who use them are called "wango" or, in the plural, "wando". Wango is the Mooré word for mask and the performers who wear them, but masks are owned by families, not secret societies. The "Wango Society" that has often been mentioned in the popular literature on African art does not exist.

Although the Mossi call all masks wango (pl. wando), they use the term karanga (pl. karansé) to distinguish the tall, plank-topped masks from Yatenga from the smaller, zoomorphic masks from the southwest. In addition, the masks that bear a female figure are called karan-wemba ("wemba mask"), karan-neda ("person mask"), or simply wan-neda (a contraction on wango and neda, "person").

There are at least three major substyles in the north that correspond to the zones of occupation of the Kurumba and the Dogon. These substyles are defined by the use of a convex or concave mask face, and by the height and breadth of the vertical plank. (Risiam style masks at a funeral in 1977)

b.1. The Yatenga Style

The tall, vertically oriented, concave-faced masks which are used by the Mossi in the traditional state of Yatenga have, for decades, been considered the epitome of Mossi sculptural traditions.

These masks vary from 100 cm.(38 in.) to 220 cm.(84 in.). They consist of a concave, oval facial area painted white and a long, narrow vertical plank. The face of the mask is bisected vertically by a narrow dentate ridge, and is pierced by two triangular eye holes. The sides of the mask are frequently decorated with incised "ladder" patterns that imitate traditional facial scars. Above the face of the mask, and just in front of the plank, are carved the head and horns of an antelope. The front and back of the plank bear low-relief geometric patterns painted red, black, and white. The plank usually terminates in a truncated triangle. Invariably, the cheeks of the mask are pierced by a stick that is clamped firmly between the performer's teeth to help steady the mask. A series of smaller holes around the rim or back of the mask provide for the attachment of the tailored cap or thick cowl of fibers that cover the performer's head. The performer wears a belt of knotted and twisted cotton strands to which are tied a number of small, iron rattles. The rest of the mask costume consists of the traditional tailored Mossi shirt (fugu) and short, baggy trousers (kuiriga). The costume is scanty compared to the heavy fiber costumes worn by masks in other areas of Mossi country, or among other peoples in central Burkina Faso. It is much more similar to the brief costume of red fiber skirt and traditional trousers worn by Dogon mask performers in villages in eastern Mali. No attempt is made to hide the fact that the mask is being worn by a human, and it is often quite easy to identify the performer. (Yatenga style mask, funeral, 1976)

A second type of mask, in the same style, combines the wooden figure of a woman with the basic mask form described above . The figure is placed above the face of the mask, and either stands in front of the tall, thin plank, or entirely replaces the plank.

A few additional mask forms based on the same regional style are occasionally seen. The tall plank may be replaced by the figure of a bird in flight, or the plank is intersected at right angles by shorter planks, resulting in a form that very closely resembles the kanaga masks of the Dogon, who live only fifty kilometers northwest of Ouahigouya, the capital city of Yatenga. There are, in addition, masks in which the plank has been turned 90 degrees and curves dramatically forward .

Yatenga style Mossi masks are found in the northwestern corner of the Mossi Plateau. Yatenga style masks are also found widely scattered in a few Nyonyosé communities south of Yatenga, in the traditional Ouagadougou state. The transitional zone between the Ouagadougou style and the Yatenga style corresponds to the low, brushy areas around the headwaters of the White Volta near the town of Niessega. This is the same area that has traditionally marked the boundary between the Mossi kingdoms of Ouagadougou in the south and Yatenga in the north. The transitional zone between the area of the Yatenga style and the next style to the east, in Risiam, is very broad. Concave-faced Yatenga style masks may be found deep within the Risiam style area, most notably in the towns of Kongoussi and Tikaré (map #3: Distribution of Mossi Mask Styles).

b.2. The Risiam Style.

When Risiam style masks are compared to Yatenga style masks, we usually find that the planks of Risiam masks are shorter and broader than on Yatenga masks. The antelope head and horns are larger and more prominent on Risiam masks, and the facial portion of Risiam masks is convex, rather than concave. The hemispherical face is bisected vertically by a notched or dentate ridge flanked by round (or occasionally triangular) holes. In Yatenga the eyeholes are almost always triangular. Risiam style mask at a funeral

The same geometric signs are used on the masks from each style region, the same red, white, and black pigments are used to paint the signs. The rather scanty black fiber costumes worn with the masks in each area are quite similar and are attached to the masks in the same way.

There are several minor variants in the area, represented by a limited number of masks. The best known but most enigmatic of these are a group of masks surmounted by two parallel, slender planks joined at the top and bottom . These masks are clearly part of the northern Voltaic style which includes the masks of the Dogon, Kurumba, and northern Mossi. The convex face and lack of incised surface detailing lead me to believe that they were produced by a carver in the Risiam style area or farther north among the Kurumba, or by a small group or "school" of carvers in a single village. It is quite common for an individual carver to sell his work to families belonging to all three peoples . In writing of the mask in the Tishman collection, Anne-Marie Schweeger-Hefel has correctly noted the important relationship between the mask and the myths of origins of the families that own them, as well as the importance of weaving in Mossi mythology. It is very unlikely that the curving planks represent the long shed-sticks or weaving-swords that are used by women on broad, vertical looms, however, because among the Kurumba only men weave on very narrow, horizontal men's looms. In the rare cases when supplementary shedding devices are used, they are always quite short and are not curved.

I have examined many of these masks, and although there are numerous obvious tourist pieces, carved in Bamako, there are also many masks that bear all of the signs of manufacture and long use in a traditional village context.

The geographic area in which convex-faced Risiam style Mossi masks are found corresponds to the area of the traditional Mossi states of Risiam, Ratenga, and Zitenga. All of these states once owed allegiance to the ruler of Yatenga. This area is defined in the south by the White Volta River, and in the north by the area occupied by the Kurumba and the Sahel, which is the land of nomadic Fulani and Tuareg herders. To the east and west the transitional zones with the Yatenga and Kaya styles are broad and vague--the result of the mixing of ancient Dogon inhabitants in the west and the Kurumba who were moving into the region from the east before the Nakomsé conquest. South of the White Volta, in the area of the Ouagadougou style, a few villages where Risiam style masks are used are scattered among the communities that use small animal masks. The most notable of these is Kirsi, east of Yako, where I have carried out research .

b.3 The Kaya Style

The facial portion of Kaya masks is always convex, but frequently lacks the bisecting vertical ridge of Yatenga and Risiam styles. In Kaya the plank is short, broad, and is often broken up into several branches and is irregular in outline. Kaya style masks generally lack any carved patterns, and geometric shapes are roughly painted on the mask with white clay .

The fiber costume is extremely scanty and rather roughly made, consisting of a skirt, and cowl over the back of the head.

Kaya style masks are used by the Nyonyosé in northeastern Mossi country, in the area of the town of Kaya and farther north. This area is bounded on the west by the sparsely populated areas between Samtaba and the Lake of Bam (near Kongoussi). The Kaya style gives way to the Boulsa mask style in the area between Kaya and Boussouma in the south, between Kaya and Pibaoré in the southeast, and between Pissila and Tougouri in the east. In the north, Mossi villages gradually give way to Kurumba villages. As in northern Risiam, the transitional zone between the Mossi and the Kurumba is not sharply defined (map #?: Distribution of Mossi Mask Styles).

C. The Eastern (Boulsa) Style:

The eastern Mossi near Boulsa use masks which are stylistically very distinct from other Mossi masks . The semi-cylindrical facial portion is bisected by a ridge or nose. Parallel slits on each side of the nose permit the performer to see. The mask is painted white with kaolin clay, and has small red surrounds at the eyes. The performer wears a complex, carefully tailored fiber costume. The performer holds a split reed between his teeth and alternately sucks and blows air through it to produce a high or low toned whistling sound. The mask speaks to its assistants, but in a language that only the initiated can understand.

Within the Boulsa style area, three types of masks are used, which differ in both the form of the wooden mask and the construction of the fiber costumes. All three mask types are referred to collectively as gur-wando.

The rarest and most important masks are called yali. Two horns project upward on each side of the face. The mask is worn with a carefully tailored, three-piece fiber costume that so completely covers the wearer that only the soles of his feet are exposed . The costume consists of a pair of trousers, a shirt that hangs to the knees, and a cowl that is attached to the mask and falls around the wearer's shoulders. All three pieces are constructed on a close-fitting knotted fiber foundation garment, into which are tied masses of long fibers that are clipped short so that the ensemble resembles a deep-pile shag rug.

The yali is short; usually less than five feet (1.5 m.); because it is intended to represent a dwarf spirit from the bush. Of necessity it is worn by a small boy, although the Mossi never admit this.

The most common masks are the tall masks, worn by adult men, with red fiber costumes called wan-zega ("red mask"). The visible portion of the mask is about 35 cm. long and 20 cm. wide. It is painted white with red surrounds at the eyes. A tall (ca. 100 cm.), thin pole extends from the top of the mask. The pole is covered with a thick layer of long red fibers, and from it hangs a large, heavy sack of traditional medicine which swings freely when the mask dances. The body of the performer is covered with a close-fitting red costume. Wan-zega carry a long knife and a club in the left hand. However, I never saw a mask actually use either of these weapons. Both of these masks carry long, flexible whips made from the branch of a neem tree. The masks frequently strike out at spectators with these whips (sabaga).

The third mask type, which I saw only in the northern part of the Boulsa area, in the town of Zeguedeguin, is called wan-sablaga, the black mask. It is clearly part of the Boulsa style, but is quite different from the yali or the wan-zega. The basic form is similar to the yali, but with a tall pole above the face . A semicircular nose projects dramatically from the face which is covered with bright red seeds and beads set in a layer of beeswax. Strands of white cowries set off the nose and the forehead and surround the facial area. Four round mirrors placed in pairs on each side of the nose are the eyes of the mask. The performer sees through small slits between each pair of eyes. The tall pole that extends from the top of the mask is tightly wrapped in braided strands of fiber, and is partially covered with loose strands of cowries and red cloth. The basic construction of the costume is similar to the other masks except the performer is provided with a tightly-fitting black fiber skirt that extends to the ground and resembles a woman's cloth wrapper. The performer does not carry weapons.(Female mask in Zegedeguin)

Boulsa-style masks are used by the Nyonyosé in the northeastern corner of Mossi country, in an area that corresponds closely to the traditional Mossi state of Boulsa, except in the southwest, where it extends into the traditional state of Boussouma, around the towns of Boussouma and Korsimoro. The southern limit seems to be the swampy, low area near Nyégha, 20 km. south of Boulsa. South of this area, in the kingdoms of Koupéla and Tenkodogo, the Mossi (i.e. the Nyonyosé) do not use masks. To the north is the Sahel, inhabited by the Fulani, and to the east are the Gurmantché, who do not use masks of wood. A few masks of this style are sometimes seen in the area south of Ouagadougou, near Manga and Saponé. Here, however, they are scattered, less numerous than animal masks. The fact that there are no apparent connections between these areas leaves unresolved the question of the origins of the style.

Function of Mossi Masks:

Masks play a fundamental role because they are the reincarnation of the animal totem, the spirits of the important dead elders, and of the collective spirits of the ancestors of the clan.

In the south west (Ouagadougou style) and in the north (styles of Yatenga, Risiam and Kaya), each male head of a Tengabisi lineage may own a mask, in the form of the clan's totemic animal, on which he and his family may make sacrifices to the spirits of the ancestors. These personal or lineage masks are kept in the spirit house of the lineage or in the owner's own house. The oldest mask is referred to as the wan-kasenga, or "big mask", the chief mask at all funerals and year-end sacrifices. The remaining masks of the clan, almost identical in form to the senior mask, are referred to collectively as wan-liuli, or "bird masks". This does not mean that these masks represent birds in form, but refers to their function at funerals and other mask appearances as agents for crowd control. In the east (Boulsa) this function is performed by the large, red wan-zega. The major masks of each clan appear much less frequently than do the other, less important masks. Wan-kasenga rarely travel to other villages to appear at the funerals of clan members who have moved away from the primary clan residence.

Masks appear at burials, and at funerals of clan elders. They protect and aid the members of the clan, and they protect the harvest of wild-growing fruits. Finally, they are portable altars on which the blood of animals may be offered as sacrifices to the ancestors of the clan.

Funerals Whenever a head of a household dies, immediately after the burial, they block the door to the house where he was lying and they open another exit, so that if he tries to return he will be confused. If it is a question of an important individual, a great funerary ceremony is held to which are invited all of the villages of the region. It is at these ceremonies that the `Ouangos' appear...(Marc 1909: 152).

The masks appear at the burial of any male or female elder of a Tengabisi family and escort the corpse of the deceased to the grave, serving as an honor guard and witness on behalf of the ancestors to assure that all of the burial procedures are properly carried out. The masks do not "dance" or otherwise perform at the burial, where the emphasis is on mourning. Their role is secondary to that of the people in charge of the digging of the grave and the interment. No sacrifices are made on the clan's masks at the burial, although important sacrifices are made in the kimse-roogo or clan spirit house. Burials are, by necessity, held very soon after death.(Ouagadougou style mask at a funeral near Yako in 1976)

From several weeks to months after the burial, during the dry season, the major funeral or memorial service is held for each member of the clan who has died during the preceding year. At this time the masks that belong to the clan of the deceased play a major role. Mask at funeral east of Yako, 1976 Delobsom explains the role of masks in funeral ceremonies:

One day the villagers had gone to celebrate the `Kouré' (funeral) of an elder and were returning. They were the `Warba' dancers. Singing, they approached the hut of the `Waongo' which suddenly burst out. The terrified dancers fled. Only one singer had the courage to remain.

He continued to sing the songs and the mask followed him to the dwelling of the deceased, where it began to dance. It was concluded that the mask was something for funerals. Since that time at the death of an elder or an old woman of the Nyonyosé/Sukwaba, the `Waongo' is called out. It does not dance, in fact, for any deceased young people (Delobsom 1932: 170-2).

The masks emerge from the kimse-roogo to honor the deceased clan elder and to escort the animative spirit (sigha) of the dead into the world of ancestral spirits. Here the emphasis is on the celebration of the spirit, which is finally free to join the ancestors; the parents, brothers and cousins with whom the elder was raised as a child. This is a joyful, rather than a sad occasion. Following sacrifices of chickens, dogs, and millet beer (ram, or dam) on the masks themselves in the house of the deceased, the spirit is free to leave the family dwelling and take the long, smooth, straight road through the bush to the sacred cavern in the hills above the village of Pilimpikou, where the spirits reside, and where, every market day, one can hear the sound of drums as the spirits gather in their cabarets to drink ram. Following these important sacrifices the masks emerge from the family dwelling and perform for the clan members and other guests at the funeral, swirling, bobbing, and imitating the characteristic movements of the animals they represent. The masks perform to the music of traditional Mossi whistles (wiré) and long wooden drums (gangaado).

The many wan-liuli of the clan hover like a flock of birds around the wan-kasenga ("big mask") during its appearance to prevent the non-clan guests at the funeral from approaching too closely to the clan's primary mask.

The elders recruit young men (ca. 20-30 years) of the clan to wear the masks at these rites. The performers are selected by the elders from young initiates who have already demonstrated their talent for wearing the masks.

Because masks are owned by lineages and clans, all of the members of these clans have access to the masks for purposes of sacrifice to the ancestors during funeral rites. Young and old, male and female alike participate in mask appearances. It is quite normal to see women dance alongside and embrace the masks. In contrast to the other areas, in the Boulsa region women and children are excluded from mask performances, and young boys who dare to attempt to watch are chased and whipped by the masks.

The clan earth-priest (tengsoba) does not play a significantly more important role than other clan elders at mask sacrifices or at funerals, because his concern is the earth and life, not ancestral spirits or death. The death sacrifices are the responsibility of the oldest male members of the clan or lineage.

Protection of the Clan

Totemic masks also serve as direct lines of communication to the ancestors of the clan to which they belong. The mask, stripped of its costume, which is stored separately, becomes the personal ancestral altar of the owner and his lineage. Sacrifices are made directly on the mask, seeking the aid of the lineage ancestors in providing many healthy children, good wives, abundant rainfall, good crops, and success in any endeavor to be undertaken by the supplicant.

Sacrifices may be offered to the protective spirits through masks by supplicants who are not members of the lineage or clan that owns the mask. A spirit may acquire a reputation for effectiveness in dealing with a problem or disease, and people may come from great distances to offer sacrifices to obtain its help. In these cases, the male head of the lineage intercedes to perform the sacrifices offered by the supplicant. A person who wishes to communicate with the spirit to obtain some favor first visits a local diviner (bouga) to determine, by various means but primarily by the casting of cowries, which spirit mask in the community will best serve the client under the circumstances. The diviner will indicate the mask to be addressed and the requisite sacrifices:

If a man has been married for three years and his wife has not borne a child, he takes ash (tom-pelem) in his left hand and circles the mask with it three times in a counterclockwise direction, saying to the mask that if his wife is given children by the ancestors he will give the mask a dog, a chicken, millet beer (dam), or millet water (zomkom). When he speaks to the mask he speaks to the sisé, (souls) of the yabaramba (grandfathers). He speaks to the mask and the grandfathers hear.

If a child is born, it is named Wango, after the mask. If the child is a boy it is named Wan-daogo ("male mask), if a girl, Wan-poko ("female mask"). After that his wife will continue to have children.

If the man or someone in his family is sick, and the hospital doesn't work, he asks the mask and the mask gives health. If he wants money, or work, or anything else, he goes to the mask and he will have it (Bonkoungo Rasablaga, 2/9/77, Yako).

Annual Ancestral Sacrifice

On one occasion each year, usually just before the beginning of the rainy season in May, all of the masks of each clan in a community participate in a ritual called suku or sigim-dam (literally, "the Sukomse beer"). General sacrifices are made on the clan masks, and through the masks, in their function as protective totemic spirit of the clan, to the spirits of the ancestors. These sacrifices invoke the blessings of all of the ancestors. The spirits are requested to bring an early and abundant rainy season and to provide for the general well-being of the entire clan during the coming year. Large quantities of ram (millet beer) are brewed to be offered in sacrifices and to be consumed by the clan members. The masks of each clan move through the village, visiting the kimse-roogo, or clan spirit house in each neighborhood in turn, to honor their ancestors.(Ancestral shrine)

Guardians of Wild Fruit

Informants throughout Yatenga told me that the karanse plank masks that belong to their clans continue to function as guardians of certain wild fruit trees which, because they grow in the bush, are considered to be common property of the village. In a few cases (Samba and Kao) the Nyonyosé stated that their masks performed this function in the past but have recently (in 1977) ceased to do so. The masks do not guard fruit trees every year, but only following periods of drought when crops have failed or are poor, and there is not sufficient grain to sustain the villagers through the hungry season between the planting of the seed and the first harvests.

This tradition was recorded by Tauxier in Yatenga:

The dwaga (locust bean or "néré") is not guarded by the masks because they are privately owned and guarded. All other trees grow in the deep bush, where they are beyond the control of the Nakomsé political chief, or Tenganaba. Trees that grow in the bush are considered common village property, and their fruits may be gathered by anyone. Trees that grow in cultivated fields, on the other hand, are usually owned by individual families who control the gathering of their fruits. During periods of drought, when gathered food is critical for survival, the authority of the village masks extends into the bush where the authority of the village chief does not reach.

In each village a day is chosen for picking the shea nuts, and all of the women pick together. If a person is seen climbing a tree to gather the fruit before the appointed day, the masks of the community will come to his house during the evening to demand a chicken and a sheep.

Some masks, in some areas, perform for secular celebrations. For example, in the Boulsa region, the tall, red guard masks occasionally appear at secular festivals, such as the National Independence Day or at rituals in honor of the political chief, but on these occasions the more important masks remain behind in the clan spirit house.

It is important to understand that secret mask societies do not exist in Burkina Faso. Some authors have described secret societies among the Mossi, based on Tauxier's or Lucien Marc's descriptions of "mysterious brotherhoods", and "secret languages". Mask performers are always men who have been initiated into the knowledge of masks' meanings and origins, and in the Boulsa area, women are excluded from performances. But elsewhere family members have access to masks by right of birth into certain families. There is nothing to imply a relationship between masks and secret societies, such as a "wango society". In fact, all rites are open to members of the families who own the masks.

Mossi Figures

There are numerous fragmentary descriptions of Mossi figures as early as 1904 by the French ethnographer Ruelle (1904: 683). They were later mentioned by Tauxier (1917: 384), and Frobenius (1926: 94), but none of the early sources mentions style or function of figures.

The Mossi produce several types of figures, including wooden figures that are used in burials, where they replace the corpse of the deceased chief. Smaller wooden figures are used in village ceremonies that honor the chief. Animal figures represent the ideal characteristics of the Mossi chief . The Mossi carve two types of figurative posts. Small posts that appear in male/female pairs are placed on either side of the doorway that leads into the chief's compound residence. Longer carved wooden posts support the chief's sun-shelter. The Mossi also cast figures in brass that represent deceased Mossi emperors. Some Mossi diviners use figures of stone or of wood. Finally, small wooden dolls intended for children are well-represented in European and American collections.

Except dolls, all Mossi figures, regardless of size, sex, function or material, are called ninandé (sing., ninana), which simply means "modeled figures."

Chiefs' Figures:

In contrast to masks, which are used by the Tengabisi in family religious ceremonies, figures are used by the Nakomsé in a political context, as visual affirmations of the nam or right to rule of the Naba. In some contexts the role of figures is similar to that of masks.

Mossi figures are carved of a single piece of wood, and range in height from 40 to 50 centimeters. The most notable style characteristics are an attenuated, cylindrical torso, arms extended rigidly at the sides with forearms parallel to the thighs . The face may be slightly concave in profile, and the planes of the face are often flattened, with a heavy, overhanging brow. The sex is usually clearly indicated. Most figures that survive in collections are female, and bear the tall, central ridge that runs from the front to the back of the head, representing the women's hairstyle called gyonfo, as well as pendulous breasts, prominent umbilicus, and incised facial and ventral scars that imitate the scars that are traditionally worn by Mossi women .

When exposed to public view in Nakomsé year-end ancestral sacrifices, figures invariably wear a small cloth wrapper that covers the lower portion of the body and the thighs in imitation of traditional women's' dress. Figures in collections outside Africa are unclothed. (Chief's figures at a royal ceremony, 1977)

Very few figures bear all of these characteristics, and it is quite common to find Mossi figures misattributed to other peoples, because there are marked similarities between the Mossi style and the style of their Mandé neighbors, the Bamana and the Bobo, as well as other peoples in Burkina Faso. In addition, there is a lack of style homogeneity in Mossi figure sculpture, and objects by two artists in neighboring villages may vary greatly in form.

The variety of carving styles may be the result of several factors. Artists in each geographical area of Mossi country have been influenced by the styles of the peoples that originally lived in the area. In addition, each Mossi artist may produce only one or two chiefs' figures during his lifetime for one or two traditional chiefs in his region. A group of figures in the ancestral spirit house of a single Mossi chief may represent the work of several different carvers working over a period of decades for several generations of chiefs in one community. Because an artist who has been asked to carve a figure for a chief need only satisfy the demands and requirements of a single client, unusual objects result. As an example, the Nakomsé chief of La Titon, near Yako, owns a figure of a soccer player. Finally, although chiefs' figures are placed on view in the community once a year, they are far more private works of art than are wooden masks, which are used by a different segment of the Mossi population. While the masks travel from one community to another to perform at funerals of clan members who have emigrated from their home villages, resulting in stylistic influences that extend over a broad geographic area, chiefs' figures never leave the compound of their owner and are seen only by the local population and by one or two artists living near by.

It is important to remember that not all Mossi figures are female, and so may lack the sagittal crest that is too often used as the sole basis for attribution to the Mossi. Although male Mossi figures are rare outside Burkina, they are not unknown. For example, there is a male/female pair in the White Collection in Seattle.

Function:

In addition to their role in affirming the authority of the chief, figures serve in ways that are similar to mask functions. Some are used for a short period for the burial of chiefs, and are destroyed, while others receive annual sacrifices to royal ancestors. During the remaining months, figures are stored in the kimse roogo, in the hut of the chief's senior wife.(Chief's tomb)

Funerals:

By far the most interesting and detailed description of figures in use was published by Jacques Kaboré. Describing the use of a carved figure at the burial of a chief in Koupéla, he notes that the death is kept secret so that the traditionally lawless interregnum preceding the election of the new chief will be as short as possible. The corpse is quietly interred immediately after death, but no one outside the immediate family is informed. When the time comes for the official ("second") burial of the old chief, the elder courtiers use a wooden figure:

Figures at Annual Sacrifices:

In 1966 Peter Hammond published photographs of figures that appeared in annual sacrifices to honor the living chief and his ancestors. The figures were displayed at na-poosum in Gourcy, in southern Yatenga.

In 1977 I attended a chief's annual ceremony at La Titon called umbila. The purpose of the umbila festival is the same as that of the na-poosum at Gourcy; the elders of each of the clans in the district reaffirm their allegiance to the chief and present him with the fruits of the most recent harvest. Over the course of three days, the Nakomsé chief travels on horseback to each of the villages in his district to receive the salutations and offerings of the people, whether they are Nakomsé, Nyonyosé, Saya (smiths), Yarsé (weavers), or Silmi-mossi (herders). Each morning, just before setting out for the day, the chief mounts a low earthen platform that has a small, raised mound near the center, located just inside the entrance to his residence. A white chicken is sacrificed to the royal ancestors on this rounded altar, and as the chief leaves his courtyard, two wooden figures are placed on the platform next to the ancestral altar . The figures remain in place until the chief returns home at sunset, when the ancestral sacrifices are repeated. The chief of La Titon owns three generations of figures; a small, bisexual figure belonged to the current chief's grandfather, a larger female figure belonged to his father, and a new (in 1977) male figure of a soccer player.

Free standing human figures, probably never very numerous, are becoming rarer as increasing numbers of traditional chiefs become Moslem and discontinue the use of figures they own, often to sell them to dealers in antiquities. The Gourcy chief, pictured in Hammond's photograph of the na-poosum, still owned at least two wooden ninandé in 1977 when I visited him, although he had been a devout Moslem for many years and had made the pilgrimage to Mecca ten years before. The figures had not been publicly displayed for ten years, but were carefully preserved in the chief's own bedroom. One of the two I saw was the same figure seen at the right in Hammond's photograph, dressed in a head cloth, wrapper, and beads. It was in good condition in 1977, although slightly abraded, and still showed clearly the characteristic facial and belly scars visible in the earlier photograph. Although the chief refused to discuss the meaning of the objects under pressure from his sons and advisors who were devout Moslems and were themselves embarrassed that the old chief still adhered to traditions, the statement by Tauxier that, in the south, such figures "represent their ancestors" (1917: 384), and the prominent position the figures in Gourcy once occupied during the sacrifices to the royal ancestors--the deceased Gourcy chiefs--lead to the conclusion that the figures owned by royals at least symbolize the ancestral spirits' presence at and participation in na-possum or umbila sacrifices.

Animal Figures:

Less well known outside Burkina Faso, but apparently more numerous in Mossi country than human figures, are wooden carvings of animals. The most frequently carved animals are the ram and the guinea hen, both commonly associated with the Nakomsé and frequently used as offerings to the royal ancestors. These represent animals whose characteristics are compared to the virtues of the ideal Mossi chief. The ram is brave and aggressive, as a chief should be, while the pintard is silent after its throat has been cut in sacrifice. Animal figures do not represent protective spirits.

Chiefs' Posts:

There are two types of carved wooden posts. Small posts hold the straw mat door to the chief's compound against the wall of the hut. Taller posts support the straw roof of the sun shelter where the chief receives guests and holds court, just outside his home.

Entrance Posts:
Male and female pairs of carved posts are erected on each side of the entrance to the chief's compound residence in his official courtyard, samandé .

The posts were placed in a socket in the ground just far enough from the mud wall of the entrance hut that the intricately woven straw mat that serves as a door at night can be slid between the posts and the wall. The figure, 60 cm. tall, forms the upper portion of the post. It bears the same stylistic characteristics and facial scars as the freestanding figures. In the region around Ouagadougou, the figure on the right side of the door is female, and bears a single line that slants across the left cheek, and a small cross marks the right). The male figure, on the left, bears the three vertical lines at the side of the face and the diagonal scar on the right cheek that Mossi boys are given before reaching puberty. In each case, details are burned into the wood with a hot metal blade.

These posts are the traditional sculptures that the casual visitor to Mossi country is most likely to see in their original context. A pair of these posts stands at the entrance of the Mogho Naba's palace in Ouagadougou, in his official samandé (courtyard) on the west side of the palace, near the intersection of the road to Pô and the road to Gounghin.

In the important village of Saponé, southwest of Ouagadougou, Chief Sanom erected in 1976 two new posts at the entrance to his compound each year.

The posts are changed each year after the annual sacrifices following the harvest, when the chief's ancestors are thanked for providing for the well-being of the community during the year. The old posts are buried like human corpses.

The figures serve two purposes: they are symbols to all visitors that the house belongs to an important chief, and they guard the entrance of the compound to prevent dangerous spirits from harming the family. It is apparent that in this context they embody spirits that watch over the chief's lineage.

Sun Shelter Posts:

One of the most common sights in any Mossi village is the straw sun shelter that stands in the official courtyard, samandé, at the entrance to the village chief's compound residence. The royal ancestral altar is also located in the samandé. Often the Nakomsé chief may be seen seated beneath the shelter in conference with the bureaucrats and lineage elders in his village or region. Many of these shelters are constructed of forked wooden posts that are carved with geometric and human shapes.

The posts are arranged in rows of three, with from three to five rows, each row spaced about two meters apart. Sometimes very large shelters have from forty-nine to eighty-one posts, but in these cases only a few of the posts are carved. Posts vary in height from 160 cm. to 200 cm., but when they are in position a quarter to a third of the length may be buried in the ground. Posts are uniformly forked at the top to support the horizontal beams that in turn support the straw roof. The roof of the structure is low (1.10 - 1.50 m.), so that one must bend to enter. This provides maximum shade in the afternoon. In the most common arrangement of three rows of three posts, the central post may be doubled, with two posts placed side by side. Informants in La Titon told me that the central paired posts represent the chief himself, in his male/female character as the ideal physical and spiritual representative of the community.

The most usual decoration is a series of stacked rings that are stylizations of the brass bracelets, called kobré, worn exclusively by the wives of chiefs. On the most elaborately carved examples, common now only in museums, a female figure is carved in relief. Posts are not painted, and because they are constantly exposed to the weather, they are very worn, covered with deep fissures from frequent soaking and drying.

Posts are carved by smiths and are offered to the chief by the male heads of local lineages, who then expect favors in return, especially the gift of a wife for themselves or for a son. The shelters are erected during the chief's lifetime, and when he dies the altar at the center may receive offerings in his name.

Brass Figures:

The na-poosum celebration at which wooden royal ancestor figures appear also serves as the occasion for the procession of the cast brass "portraits" of deceased Mossi emperors in the village of Lumbila, northeast of Ouagadougou.

There are only a few descriptions of the cast brass portraits of deceased Mossi emperors which are stored at Lumbila. Capitaine G.E. Lambert (1907: 159) describes the appearance of the brass portraits of the deceased Mogho Nanamsé at secret ceremonies celebrated seven days after the festival of Tinsé, when sacrifices are offered in Oubri-tenga northeast of Ouagadougou in memory of the Nyonyosé mother of the first Mogho Naba:

The effigies, representing the deceased Moro [Mogho] Nabas, placed under the responsibility of the chief of Lumbila, are carried out and placed in a vast enclosure of woven straw mats. Each royal image is accompanied by those of servants carrying in their hands a calabash for libations of zom-kom (millet flour water) and of beer. No one may approach the enclosure of straw mats if he is wearing a hat, sandals, an axe, or hoe; if this should occur, the objects are confiscated and thrown into the interior of the enclosure. These statuettes are produced by the nyogsê, specialized smiths, from Ouagadougou (Lambert 1907)

Unfortunately, Lambert does not describe the cast portraits in detail. Dim Delobsom states that at the death of the Mogho Naba a wax statue is made in his image and is later replaced [by lost-wax casting] by a brass figure (1928: 410). The living emperor must never see either the statue of his predecessor or the artisan who created it, lest he die.

The shrines on which these cast figures are placed are arranged around the walls of the large huts that serve as kimse-roogo, or ancestral spirit houses. The huts themselves are built above the tombs of the empero