Headdress - Chi Wara - Bambara - Mali

Chiwara, antelope figure of the Bambara (Bamana) people of Mali that represents the spirit that taught humans the fundamentals of agriculture. The Bambara honour Chiwara though art and dance.

Chiwara headdresses are among the best known and most popular objects of African art. The Chiwara mask is held for the persons who are the best and fastest workers of the land, and so it is passed from one person to another depending on skill and expertise. It is a high honour to be able to wear the mask and dance the ceremonial Chiwara dance. The dance, representing both male and female genders, commemorates Chiwara with the dancers wearing beautifully carved headdresses representing antelopes. The dancers leap and turn, moving their heads and feet like the antelope, their movements grounded in hundreds of years of tradition. The dance, which suggests fertility, reproduction, propitiation of the spirits and ancestors, and gratitude to Chiwara, carries with it moral lessons and religious symbolism. During the dance, the ‘Chiwara’ (also spelled ‘Chi wara’) are tied to plaited caps.

The present Chiwara headdress is of the rarest abstract type found exclusively in the region around Bougouni and Dioila. Only in this area do Bambara carvers combine the bodies of two animals of the African savanna to form a fantastical creature. The body of a pangolin is surmounted by the neck, forelegs and head of a hippotragina (horse antelope) with its ears and ringed antlers. Two decorative protuberances complete the structure. It presents a crusty patina in some areas from usage and smooth in others.