Kpan Female Mask

Origin: Baule Tribe, Ivory Coast
Composition: wood, pigment dye

Baule Kpan masks represent the"portait of a beautiful woman," and are worn in dances during various festivities. These masks appear as the last of all masks, at the climax of the festivity, and take on the senior female role, acting as the leader among a group of four masqueraders. This leading role is a reference to the influence and imortance of women in the Baule society.

The Baule are one of the Akan peoples. They moved west to the Ivory Coast more than 200 years ago and adopted masking traditions from their neighbors, the Guro, Senufo and Yaure peoples. There are three basic types used in a special dance of rejoicing called Goli, symbolizing the social order. As with this mask, most Baule masks are Kpan, with elaborate coiffures and refined carving, and represent the senior female in harvest and funeral ceremonies. Many believe they represent a Baule ideal of female beauty, with highly refined features, and a demure elegance to the face. This piece was carved from a single piece of wood and is thought to have been carved within the last 30 years. Baule masks are some of the most elegant and beautiful of masks carved worldwide.

The Baule represent one of the most important tribes of the Ivory Coast. Their name is testimony to their birth- according to legend, Queen Aba Pokou led her people on an exodus towards the gold-mining areas during the 18th century and had to cross a river where she was obliged to sacrifice her son to the river god, thus giving her people the name Bauli, ‘the son is dead’. During the 19th century, the queendom disintegrated due to internal conflicts and by the beginning of the 20th century, when the French colonials arrived, they found only a network of villages, headed by councils of venerated men (Bacquart,  Tribal Arts of Africa).