Red Kpan Mask with Two Figures

Origin: Baule Tribe, Ivory Coast
Composition: wood, paint, pigment stain

The famous day-long Baule "Goli" festival dates back to around 1900, and is held to celebrate new crops, the visits of dignitaries, periods of mourning, and is today also performed for entertainment. The ideal sequence of Baule goli dances includes four successive male-female pairs of virtually identical masks, one usually black or very dark, the other red. All are danced by men.

The mask pairs are metaphorically associated to the following characters:
"Kplekple" (Junior Male) - The weak, youthful and wild animal/boy/goat.
"Goli Glin" (Senior Male) - The strong elder bush spirit/messenger/forest buffalo.
"Kpan Pre" (Junior Female) - Young female spirit that merges the bush spirits with the village/soldier.
"Kpan" (Senior Female, and the mask pictured here) - Idealized village woman/ leader/leopard.

For the Baule there is no logical inconsistency in the fact that each mask name, seemingly single and gender-specific, actually describes a male-female pair of masks. Indeed, the couples imply marriage, family, and children-all fostered by the masquerade.

Through their sequential appearance, the masks trace a progression from foolish youthfulness, to stronger, more aggressive danger, then from youthful female grace to fully realized womanly beauty and wisdom. The first two pairs, essentially animalistic,signify unruliness and forest power, contrasting with the second two civilized human pairs, which represent the dignified order of the village and its leaders.

The final and hierarchically highest mask, eagerly awaited throughout the day, is kpan, senior female, the embodiment of cool, pure, life-giving womanhood. Her mask is small, with balanced harmonious features. Her costume emphasizes whiteness, which implies peace and well-being. The seniority and importance of this senior female character alludes to the influence and significance of women in the Baule society, and the leadership powers carried by Baule elder women.

Goli meanings are layered and metaphorically rich. The sequence, while entertaining and dramatic, with elaborate costuming, well-carved masks, clever songs, and affecting dances, is at the same time a compressed version of Baule values, a microcosm of age, gender, aesthetic, knowledge, and wilderness/village follower/leader hierarchies and oppositions. The masquerade comments upon human existence and many of its essential categories, and at the same time it enriches and deepens that life by its allusions, its drama, and its art (Ref: Bacquart, The Tribal Arts of Africa. Stepan, Spirits Speak: A Celebration of African Masks. Visona, A History of Art In Africa).