Bozo puppet. Old room over 40 years old. Delivered on base.
The Bozo are a Mandingo population from West Africa, living mainly in Mali and Niger, along the Niger river and its tributary the bani. Above all fishermen, they are considered "the masters of the river".
Bozos are mainly of Muslim confession, but keep a very strong animist tradition. The Bozos animal is the bull. His body represents the river and the horns represent the canoes.
The Bozos are a people who are still still semi-nomadic, moving their homes, depending on the seasons and the water level, upstream or downstream from the river for certain families. They often live on temporary islands created by rushes, or even partially create them by drying the banks of an island. Containts to settle down under the reign of Cheikhou Amadou (1810-1844), they remain nomads and find their huts for a few months of fishing after the rainy season.
The Bozos are linked with the Dogon ethnic group by joke. Dogons and Bozos make fun of it, but at the same time must assist, and traditionally practice an intense trade by barter of their respective specialties (Bozos fish against onions and forged tools).
In the Niger river loop, near Mopti, the Bozo, fishermen's people rub shoulders with the Bamana. Village associations of young people (equivalent of tone for bamana) are always active and compete in masks and puppet shows.
This female anthropomorphic puppet, representing a Peulus woman, is old and was harvested by Marcel Griale. The dancer evolves with the body of the puppet adapted in a structure carried on the top of the head.
Puppet_Bozoles Bamana adopted this tradition of theater at the end of the 19th century in Bozo and they too perpetuate these popular rejoicing: shows animated by anthropomorphic statuettes or animal theater.
These are often satirical.
Tradition is always alive.