Horizontal Plank Mask Representing a Butterfly

Origin: Bwa Tribe, Burkina Faso
Composition: wood, pigment dyes

The incredible horizontal plank masks of the Bwa represent butterflies and hawks, and are some of the tribe’s most abstract creations. Hawk masks can be identified by their plain white planks, whereas butterflies’ “wings” are decorated with geometric patterns. The performance of these masks is accompanied by drummers who beat the special rhythm of each mask, and each dancer gives a solo performance of rapid, rotating maneuvers.

Butterflies are symbols of new life brought by moisture in the spring, for they hatch and cluster around pools left by the first rains of the year. These plank masks are not representational—they are not intended to look like any natural being, but they embody supernatural forces that act on behalf of the Bwa clans that own the masks. The alternating geometric patters on the front and back of the mask represent the separation between good and evil, wisdom and innocence, male and female, etc., and also the “path of the ancestors,” a difficult moral path that all people must follow if they are to succeed in life (Ref: Roy, The Art of Burkina Faso, 2002).