Today I went with a friend to visit his mother’s village near Bobo Dioulasso. It is a Bobo village on the road to Diebougou, and we visited in the period of the funerals. Much unlike the Sambla, the Bobo have many masks that come out for different rituals. Some of these have the peculiarity of…

After the annual dankun sacrifice of Brahima Traoré in Samogohiri, masks come from the bush to roam in the village. They are animals, a buffalo, a black monkey, some dagwé (Roan Antelope, Hippotragus Equinus), and an old man. They are each accompanied by a warden, who has the task to “control” and communicate with them….