Mask ‘Bugle’

Dan Gio

Liberia or Cote d’Ivoire

Early 20th Century

Wood, Pigments

28cm

ex. Zachary Feere, Antioch

The Dan is not one singular ethnic group, but rather a complex of various tribes who live in the border regions of Liberia and the Ivory Coast. Dan society is organized into gendered age-grade societies, the most prominent being the Poro. It is said that when an initiated man of the Poro dreams, he may be visited by a forest spirit, called ‘Gle’, who instructs him to have a mask made and danced so that the spirit may take on a physical form. The masks of the Dan serve various ritual, judicial, and entertainment purposes and are frequently danced during the dry season and at the end of the Poro initiation cycle.  These can range from pantomiming and comedic to frightening, authoritative masks reserved for only the most serious matters. The present example fits the latter description well, being a type known as ‘Bugle’. This mask, used to spiritually empower troops before a battle, derives its name from the onomatopoeia of a gunshot, ‘Bu’, and the suffix of the spirits ‘Gle’. It’s dramatic expression conveys this with the mouth contorted into a grimace and bulging eyes gazing intensely at the spectators and concealing the eyes of the dancer. The sides of the face are decorated with scarificatiation, which was historically worn by men in the region, and the lips would have once held chimpanzee teeth to give the visage an intimidating presence.