Goli mask, Baule people, Ivory Coast

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"In the Baule version of the Goli dance, four pairs of masks appear two by two in a fixed order: first a pair of disc-faced masks (usually called Kple Kple), next a pair of animal helmet masks (Goli Glen), third a pair of horned face masks (Kpan Pre), and finally two human-faced masks with crested hairdos (Kpan). Masks of the Kple Kple and Kpan Pre are distinguished by color: the male mask is painted red, the female black."

 

[Vogel S., 1997: Baule: African Art, Western Eyes, Yale University Press].

 

This type of mask, called kouassi gbe or kple kple is one of a pair of identical masks which represent the junior male persona of the goli dance (Vogel 1978).

 

The mask is held firmly against the wearer’s face by a bar of wood, which he clamps between his teeth.  It is worn with a raffia cape and skirt and an animal skin attached to the top of the mask, which hangs down the wearer’s back. 

 

Source: Professor Christopher D. Roy, Art and Life in Africa website, 1991.