Loniake Buffalo Ceremonial Dance Mask

This mask is influenced by the Senufo tribe or the Nafana of the Bondoukou district, the principal township of the Mande kingdom of the Ivory Coast. This type of mask was normally associated with and worn during initiation ceremonies and used in purification rites and rituals of village funerals. The most senior initiation of this type of mask is used once a generation or every forty years. There are two ceremonial occasions of the Lo secret society in which the mask was performed— in ritual biennial cycles and the forty year cycle of the Grand Lo initiation of males where they received their new names.

This mask is depicted as a large square plank-type mask with the stylization of a buffalo with circular horns. Polychrome and pigmentation create a large X motif.

Provenance: The first known American collector was the renowned collector Lawrence P. Kolton and Rachel Angotti of Michigan City, Indiana, between the years of 1969 and 1979.