Smelting Iron in Africa. 1 Mps QT4 / 1 Mps Streaming / 512 K streaming
Each of the complex steps in smelting iron from raw ore, from mining the ore, burning the charcoal, building the kiln to smelting the iron and forging it into tools.
Bwa masks in the village of Boni. Masques Bwa dans le village de Boni. 1 Mps MP4 / 1 Mps Streaming / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The Bwa are among the very few people in West Africa who continue to use masks carved of wood in the same contexts in which they used them a century ago. Bwa planks masks, hyena, serpent, hawk, dwarf, leper, and others at the spectacular first mask festival of the year in Boni, February, 2005.
If you would like to attend a mask performance at Boni and want to know when the masks will appear call Bonde Yacouba, Artistic Director of the Mask Societies in Boni, telephone 226/20.99.06.53 cell phone 226/61.43.89 He speaks French and Bwamu only. Si vous vouléz assister aux performances des masques a Boni, appelez Bonde Yacouba, Directeur Artisitique des Masques Bwa a Boni. Vous pouvez voir les masques du debut mars au mois de juin. Masks usually appear every week or so from early March to June.
Northern Bobo Nwenka mask. 1 Mps MP4 / 1 Mps Streaming / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up Northern Bobo masks represent Dwo, one of three sons of God, and the god of the rebirth of life in the spring. These plank masks are the type used by farmers, and are called nwenka.
Northern Bobo Nwenka mask II. 1 Mps Streaming / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up Northern Bobo masks represent Dwo, one of three sons of God, and the god of the rebirth of life in the spring. A great deal of honor and respect are given to performers who are able to improvise new, affective ways of interpreting the character of Dwo through performance.
Northern Bobo masks 1 Mbps MP4 / 512 K Streaming/ 256K Streaming These masks represent the God Dwo, the spirit of springtime and rebirth. These are from the area north of the city of Bobo-Dioulasso.
Marka leaf masks in Dedougou. 1 Mps / 1 Mps Streaming / 512K Streaming / 56K Dial Up These leaf masks are an excellent example as ephemeral or temorary art. The masks are made in the morning and destroyed in the evening.
Marka leaf masks in Dedougou II. 1 Mps MP4 / 1 Mps Streaming / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The performer's best friends help him put on the costume, because if the vines are too tight they will bind and cut off blood flow, or if too loose they will begin to fall apart.
The Mossi potter Maria Kafando. 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming The potter Maria KAfando uses an unusual technique in which she forms a jar over a mold pot, then removes the inner jar. The new fresh clay is torn in the process, and then is joined back together.
A Nuna blacksmith forging an iron hoe blade. 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up A blacksmith in a small Nuna village in central Burkina Faso forges a hoe blade with the help of his brother who pumps the bellows.
A Year in the Life of an African Family MPEG-4 at 512 K / MPEG-4 at 256 K / MPEG-4 at 56 K / Daily life throughout an entire year of a Mossi family in northeast Burkina Faso. The family sows and harvets crops, makes pottery, cooks food, tends animals, goes to the market.
Plank masks from the village of Boni 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The great plank masks of the village bear red, white and black graphic patterns that describe the ethical and moral conduct of life. These are God's laws, which all the members of the congregation must obey if they are to receive God's blessings.
More plank masks from the village of Boni 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The wooden portion of the mask is carved of a light, white wood similar to pine from the Ceiba pintandra tree. The costume is made of cultivated hemp. The performer is a young man of the family that owns the mask.
Two plank masks from the village of Boni 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The great plank masks spin in performance to represent the gesture of God's hands as he molded the earth from a ball of mud. The zig-zags above the face are the path of the ancestors, the checkerboard on the back represents the importance of learning.
Great serpent mask from the village of Boni 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The serpent mask recreates an encounter between a serpent and an ancesor of the village who was fleeing his enemies. The serpent saved his life by hiding him in its burrow.
Bwa leaf masks at FESTIMA, 2002. 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up Many Mande speaking peoples and a few Voltaic speaking peoples use masks made of leaves that represent Dwo, the God of springtime and the renewal of life when the first rains fall in May. The masks are assembled in the morning to the east of the village, perform all day, then leave the west side of the village in the evening and are burned.
The hyena mask does a front flip, Nuna village 512K Streaming / Great importance is placed on the quality of the performance, especially the performer's ability to interpret the character of the mask.
Mask representing an old man, Nuna village 256K Streaming / Some of the performances are humorous: this old man begs for coins and for tobacco, showing his empty cup.
Mask representing a hyena, Nuna village 512K Streaming The hyena and bushpig are both considered dirty and disgusting by the other masks, which will not sit down to next to them to await their performance. Here the hyena chews the old skull of a sheep that died in the bush, to express its character as a carion eater.
Firing pottery in far southwestern Burkina 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The Jelly potter Awa Diabite sets fire to the pottery she has produced over a period of about a month. Her female relatives help her with the firing.
Adding more pots to the firing 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up The Jelly potter Awa Diabite and her co-wives add pottery to the kiln before it is covered with dry grass and set on fire.
Blackening pottery after firing 1 Mps / 512K Streaming / 256K Streaming / 56K Dial Up After the firing dies down the potters hook the pots out of the fire and soak them in a soup or stew of boiled acacia pods. This process turns the pots a dark brown and makes them more useful for cooking over an open fire.
Sand divination near Bobo Dioulasso 512K Streaming The diviner Seydou Traore uses sand divination to help me decide which career path to follow; to continue to teach or to srve three years as a Dean.
Butterfly mask from a southern Nouna village 256K Streaming / The great butterfly masks represent tiny, colorful insects that are harbingers of spring, for their eggs hatch when the first rains of the new growing season fall in May.
Nuna women singing the praises of visitors to the village 512K Streaming / A group of women in a Nuna village east of Ouri singing the praises of some recent visitors to the village, February, 2001.
Four blacksmiths of the Traore family forgeing iron. 56K dial up / 256K Streaming / 512K Streaming Four smiths in a village in western Burkina work together on a single anvil to hammer out a heavy iron blade.
Fiber masks that represent Dwo among the Bobo people. 56K dial up / 256K Streaming / 512K Streaming Many people across West Africa make masks of leaves or fiber. In Burkina Faso and Mali these rpresent the God Dwo.
Chameleon mask in a Nuna town in central Burkina. 56K dial up / 256K Streaming / 512K Streaming One of the most important spiritual creatures in West Africa is the chameleon, which represents profound spiritual change and communication with the spirit world.
Mossi women harvest grain. 56K dial up / 256K Streaming / 512K Streaming Mossi women of the Bamogo family near Kaya gather heads of white sorghum in the fall and carry them in baskets to the family grainery.