Guro Gu mask

The Guro, sedentary farmers in the tropical rainforests and wooded savanna of the Ivory Coast interior, have no central political authority. Power is held on the village level by a council of elders comprised of the head men of the various village quarters, as well as inhering in a number of men's associations."

"The best-known cult among the northern Guro relates to a group of masks that is considered a family. It consists of zauli, a grotesque animal mask with long horns; zamble, a horned mask whose face is meant to recall a leopard or a crocodile; and gu, a human mask. Gu, who is usually thought of as zamble's wife, performs after the two zoomorphic figures, who are responsible for resolving quarrels and detecting sorcerers, or who dance at funerals and other ceremonies. During her performance, which is accompanied only by flute music, gu moves slowly and gracefully, singing songs in honor of zamble.

Like all gu masks, this example represents a young woman with features that correspond to traditional Guro ideals of feminine beauty. The Guro find aesthetically pleasing a narrow, well-proportionned face with a small chin,  a high forehead with an undulating, presumably shaven hairline, arching eyesbrows, lowered eyelids, a narrow nose with delicate nostrils, and slightly open mouth with filed teeth." Bibliography : Iris Hahner, Maria Kecskési, László Vajda, African masks, the Barbier-Müller Collection, Prestel, Munich, London, New-York, 2012