Mask - Wood - Aio / Aieo - Dogon - Mali - 33 cm

Very Ancient and Rare Dogon Aio Crocodile Mask, eroded by time. During ceremonies of mourning endings, or the dama, and for the Sigi ritual, celebrated once every six years, masks are danced in front of the initiates and their movements are supposed to imitate the movement of the world itself. In Masques Dogons (1938, p. 509) , Griaule relates the myth of the creation of this mask, worn horizontally in the village of Ibi: “While placing fibres in the mud of a swamp, to blacken them, the men of Touyogou saw the crocodile which usually came to dig up the fibres and eat them. The men killed the crocodile and took it with them. Later, they carved a mask in the image of its head, to protect the killer and his lineage from the crocodile’s spirit”. This tale reflects the reason of the invention of all these masks: to bring a material support to the soul of every single being, to protect the dying being from eventual wounds. Height: 33 cm Provenance: Private collection.