Wan-Zega Ceremonial Dance Mask

This Mossi Wan-Zega mask is a male performance mask, which during the ceremony, performs as an aggressive character, chasing the spectators and using a whip liberally to keep crowds back from the performance area.

The dancers’ costumes worn with this type of mask included trousers of red hemp that permitted the performer to run fast and catch members of the audience.

The dancer also carried a wooden or bamboo-reed between his teeth under the mask, which he would blow air into creating a high-pitched, twittering sound like a bird.

The mask is depicted covered in hibiscus cannabinus fiber and raffia with a pole-like headdress that has been fit with a fetish-bundle tied at the top with rope.  At the middle of the mask is a black stripe with a vertical row of ridges. The eyes are cut with several stripe-holes, which are used by the performer as peepholes.

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.