Young people slowly move away from the culture of masks in Burkina Faso
By Èlia Borràs From Uagadugú (Burkina Faso)
The urban exodus of young people compromises the culture of masks in Burkina Faso. The ignorance of its meaning and commercial exploitation are other of the challenges facing this tradition anchored in the roots of the Burkin peoples. To preserve it, the Government has declared on May 15 of customs and traditions.
The masks are not just well carved wood pieces. Neither a sculpture nor a decoration object hung on a wall. “If you were born in a culture where the masks have power, you can never get out of this, although religions, both Islam and Christianity, have disorder everything,” explains Ahmed Traoré, artisan of wood in the Village Artisanal of Uagadugú, capital of Burkina Faso. This carpenter, which can elaborate both a wooden dish and a BWABA mask – typical of the Bobo ethnic group, majority in the west of the country -, more than 20 years ago that is dedicated to sculpting the masks that are used in the ceremonies and rituals throughout the country. In Burkina Faso there are 65 ethnicities and each one has its language and culture. However, most coincide in the animistic tradition, which venerates the ancestors and embodies in objects the souls of nature, both human and animals.
The masks are sacred objects that appear during funerals, weddings, ceremonies to start the harvest or ask for more rain, but you never know who is behind them. There are also family and even personal masks, which can be taken at home to venerate when needed. In addition, they are known as “passport”, much smaller, with a pocket size to travel with them. “A mask in itself has no power, but once they take it to the town, there they do a ceremony, they tie them hairs of people, wash it with concoctions and even sacrifices can be made so that it can later be venerated,” explains Ahmed.
The first steps
The masks are a system and a loop that unites the earthly with the spiritual and, in addition, they manage to maintain the culture and values of a society. For example, only those who have passed the initiation rite can carry the masks and dance with them. Milogo, 30, is a young man from the Bobo ethnic group. Every year, at the beginning of March, the head of the people gathers all the men of the community to inform them about who are chosen for the initiation rite. This initiatory step marks a before and after in the lives of young people from all communities because it allows them to move on to the adult stage, which also means being carriers of tradition and, therefore, guarantors of the continuity of ceremonies with masks. It is in these initiatory steps that young people learn the dances, the meaning and secret language of the masks. During this month, the chosen ones live in the forest to learn the deep meaning of this tradition, which is preserved thanks to oral culture. Then, the head of the people – a person to whom almost divine powers are granted, often greater and respected by the members of that community – will decide the day that the masks will leave the forest to participate in the ceremony. «It is the time when the masks return from the field to dance. The ceremony lasts three days, ”says Milago. But not everyone can participate in this sacred party. In the Bobo ethnic group and in the town of Milogo only very old women and Pulotas the women of the Ethnic group Peul are known (a nomadic community present throughout the Sahel). «You already know that with the Peules we have the Patent to the Plantantrie »says Milago.
This concept, Intangible Heritage of UNESCO, which could be translated as “joke alliance” (see mn nº 629, pp. 34-39), is also part of the foundation that unites ethnicities and keeps them alone. “The joke alliance is not a personal relationship, but a social structure that theatricalizes and jokes of the conflicts of the past to facilitate the search for peace,” explains Doti Bruno Sanau, a doctor in history. The fools and peules, of agricultural and livestock tradition, respectively, had conflicts and now laugh between them and jokes. Even so, they cannot marry each other. For this reason, the only ones excluded from ceremonies are women of age to marry. These unwritten social gears are those that are learned in the rites of initiation and structure the community in the villages of Burkina Faso. “The masks or statues have a social and religious function that embodies the spirit of ancestors and totemic animals,” explains Vincent Ouatara, a professor of African culture and literature at Norbert Zongo University of Kudugu.
Masks and stools
“I use wood from here to sculpt,” explains Ahmed. Fromger, Karité and Nere wood, although not all serve to make masks. “Nére’s wood is only used to make stools,” he explains. Because masks are not the only venerated objects or the only ways of expressing themselves: lobi ethnic group, for example, has wooden stools. For men it has three legs and the sculpted face of a person in the back. The lobis have no hierarchies and each “takes care of their back”, as its stool represents. In addition, they were matriarchal and the sons and daughters adopted the names of their mothers. There are no masks, but older women have at home a statue that represents God and who refer to the name of Batebá.
The fools, who do have masks, give a four -legged stool to man after their wedding. It is a tradition that the woman prepares in him the first meal that cooks in the house. Ahmed takes a stool and approaches it to the abdomen: “This is how we walk to go to community meetings.” He adapts it to his body with a simple organic movement, without thinking.
Young people and masks
“Young people have forgotten the rural areas, they live in the city and do not know what are the masks of their ethnicity,” says Ahmed, while recognizing how everyone has the need to return to the town to meet with their masks and their venerated objects. “If one day you promised something to the mask you are obliged to return, if you do not, you will always have more bad luck,” he point it, and adds: “There are many believers in other religions that when the end of the year arrives they go to the town to return what they owe to their mask,” he explains laughing.
In 2024, for fear of losing these traditions, the Burkina Faso government decreed on May 15 as the day of customs and traditions, a festive day to make rituals and value culture. However, 72 % of the Burkinean population lives in rural areas, where the culture of masks remains more alive. According to Ouattara, the problem is not that tradition is lost, but that the masks are commercialized and enter the commercial game. “There are artists who are dedicated to copies and then sell them and in the end they only serve as a decorative object,” he says. In addition, it underlines the importance of knowing how to differentiate between the masks created for rituals and those that are purely artistic.
However, Ouattara, also highlights the efforts of African states to protect this tradition. “There is the Porto-Novo masks festival, in Benin, and Pouni’s, in Burkina Faso,” he emphasizes. The latter is celebrated from 1990 to 130 kilometers from the Burkinese capital. For three days, music accompanies the dance of masks that come from different regions. “It’s magnificent and has a lot of value,” explains Ouattara. Another appoint is the International Festival of the Masks and the art that is celebrated in finger, the fourth most important city in the country, an event that had to be suspended in 2022 due to insecurity due masks. “We are sacrificing and destroying tradition for commercial reasons, not for the modernization of our society,” concludes Ouattara.
