Chiwara

A Chiwara (also Chi wara, Ci Wara, or Tyi Wara;

Bambara: ciwara; French: tchiwara) is a ritual object
representing an antelope, used by the Bambara ethnic
group in Mali. The Chiwara initiation society uses
Chiwara masks, as well as dances and rituals
associated primarily with agriculture, to teach young
Bamana men social values as well as agricultural
techniques.

Contents
Stylistic variations
Ceremonial usage
Mousso Koroni
The Chi Wara figure
chi wara ton Comparison of the four major styles of the Chiwara
Dance mask of the Bambara people of Mali. Left to right:
abstract, Bougouni/southern region,
World influence
vertical/Segu/northern region, and
References horizontal/Bamako/Northern region
Other reference works
External links

Stylistic variations
Chiwara masks are categorized in three ways:
horizontal, vertical, or abstract. In addition, Chiwara
can be either male or female. Female Chiwara masks
are denoted by the presence of a baby antelope and
straight horns. Male Chiwara masks have bent horns
and a phallus. The sex of a Chiwara mask is much
clearer on horizontal and vertical masks while abstract
masks tend to be difficult to classify.

The appearance of the Chiwara form varies greatly

both by region and time produced. Specific master Two Chiwara at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Female (left) and male Vertical styles.
wood carvers also subtly modified the accepted (or
even religiously mandated) local forms, forming a
distinct "signature" or "school" of Chiwara figures.[1]
These regional variations have been roughly assigned the stylistic categories above. Thus the Bougouni /
Southern region style are an amalgam of several animal motifs combined in the same work, in an abstract
style; the Bamako / Northern region style is usually of the horizontal style; the Segu/ Northern region style
(the heartland of the Bambara Empire) matches the vertical style with the unique "cut out" triangular body
motif of the males. Other regional styles have been proposed, including the Sikasso region style, with a thin,
delicate, vertical form within almost human, snoutless face.[2]

Ceremonial usage
In Bambara, chi wara means laboring wild animal,[3] and is a representation of Bambara mythos about the
creation of farming.

Mousso Koroni

While there are several versions of the story, the discovery of agriculture is credited to the hero Chi Wara, a
half antelope, half human figure born from the union of the sky goddess Mousso Koroni and an earth spirit
in the shape of a cobra. The Chi Wara came to earth to teach humans to sow crops, and thus is honored at
both sowing and harvest festivals.

The Chi Wara figure

The Chi Wara itself is usually represented as a Roan Antelope with an almost human face, but also takes
shapes of other creatures and emblems of farming. The hero descends from the sky goddess, and thus
represents the sun, its body is often elongated and short legged to represent the aardvark who burrows into
the earth like a farmer. Its high horns echo the stalks of millet, and it stands on a dancer clad in a mass of
raffia stalks to represent both flowing water and a bountiful harvest. The zig-zag patterns echo the
movement of the sun across the sky, and the penis of the male figure stands low to the ground, fertilizing
the earth.
The Chi Wara figures always appear as a male/female pair, combining the elements of fertility of
humans with fertility of the earth. The female figure usually carries a young antelope on her back, and is
said to represent human beings carried by the Chi Wara hero, as well as a newborn human carried on a
mother's back.

chi wara ton

As farmers of the upper Niger river savanna, the blessing of agriculture is of central importance to Bambara
society. These traditions survive in part because the Bambara were one of the last cultures in the area to
embrace Islam, after the fall of the Bambara Empire in the late 19th century. Bambara culture has
traditionally had a strict set of age and caste fraternities (ton/jo/jow), and the chi wara ton society is one of
the more important. It gathers all young adult males of the Soli age group to work the fields at clearing,
sowing and harvest, when the greatest number of laborers is needed. Secret teachings of the chi wara ton
pass the needed skills for this work, upon which the very survival of the community depends.

The chi wara ton is also the only major Bambara society which includes both sexes. Women's labor is
needed for agriculture, just as both sexes are needed for human reproduction.

Dance

The Chi Wara is always danced with each wooden figure attached to a basket on the dancer's head, and the
body covered in a huge pile of raffia. Often the face is obscured with raffia that has been colored or
decorated, and the dancer carries a long staff. The figures are always in one or more male/female pairs, with
the female usually dancing behind the male, fanning him and spreading his powers into the gathered
community. The Male figures leap to represent the antelope, and then scratch the earth with their staves or
horns as the Chi Wara teaches humans to cultivate crops. In some communities the Mousso Koroni figure
also appears. Initiated children wear a "Sogono Kuni" ("Little antelope head"), which is quite rare to find in
museums. [4]

World influence
African sculptural forms became fashionable amongst European artists and collectors at the beginning of
the Twentieth century, and the Chiwara, especially in its more abstract forms, became one of the icons of
what Europeans called Primitive Art. The artist Guillaume Apollinaire and collector Paul Guillaume
published images of the Chiwara in their Sculptures nègres in 1917, while Picasso, Braque, and Les Fauves
became fascinated with African sculpture and masks in general, and the Chiwara figure in particular.[5]

A vertical, male, semi-abstracted Chiwara figure was included in the 1935 Metropolitan Museum of Art
exhibit African Negro Art, and the Masterpieces of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1954, (as well
as shows in London[6] and Paris) shows which were highly influential to western artists and collectors.[7]
Variations of its triangular cut-out pattern are echoed in mid-20th century Modernist art,[8] and its outline
remains one of the most recognizable of African art forms.[9]

References
1. Allen Wardwell (November 1984) A Bambara Master Carver, African Arts, 18(1):pp83–84.
2. See descriptions at Ciwara, African chimeras. Exhibition, Musée du quai Branly, Paris. 23
June – 17 December 2006 ([Link]
itions/ciwara-african-chimeras/[Link]) Archived ([Link]
35258/[Link]
chimeras/[Link]) 26 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine. and see the galleries at
Hamill Gallery:Bamana Chi Wara ([Link]
[Link]).
3. Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent (2003)
4. [Link]: Chi Wara Headdress of the Bamana ([Link]
d/lessons/middle/[Link]) Archived ([Link]
p://[Link]/groups/iad/lessons/middle/[Link]) 2007-09-27 at the
Wayback Machine. This provides much greater detail and sources, while University of
Virginia. ART IN CONTEXT: How is the Chi Wara Used? ([Link]
m/VirtualExhibitions/african/chiwara_context.html) and Humboldt State University: gallery of
Chi Wara and other Bambara dancers ([Link]
Archived ([Link]
html#BAMANA) 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine, show images of the full ceremony.
5. Some examples of French studies of African sculpture among the artists, critics, and
collectors of Modern Art include: À propos d'art nègre by Guillaume Apollinaire; Opinions sur
l'art nègre with contributions by Braque, Matisse, and Picasso; Rencontre avec l'art nègre by
Jean Laude; La Sculpture nègre et l'art moderne by Paul Guillaume; and L'art nègre by
Henri Clouzot and André Level.
6. The Sculptor Henry Moore singles out the Chiwara in a review of a 1951 London show. See
Henry Moore. Tribal Sculpture: A Review of the Exhibition at the Imperial Institute. In Man,
Vol. 51, Jul., 1951 (Jul., 1951), pp. 95-97
7. For notes on this process see Max Alfert. Relationships between African Tribal Art and
Modern Western Art. In Art Journal, Vol. 31, No. 4. (Summer, 1972), pp. 387-396. ([Link]
[Link]/stable/775542), Peter Mark. Is There Such a Thing as African Art? In The Record
 of the Art Museum, Princeton University, Vol. 58, No. 1/2. (1999), pp. 7-15. ([Link]
org/stable/3774788), and Mark Helbling. African Art: Albert C. Barnes and Alain Locke. In
Phylon (1960-), Vol. 43, No. 1. (1st Qtr., 1982), pp. 57-67. ([Link]
9) Three of many examples which mention the difussion of Bambara forms in particular.
8. Melvin R. Sylvester. African Americans in the Visual Arts. A Historical Perspective ([Link]
[Link]/cwis/cwp/library/[Link]#influence) Archived ([Link]
060830181739/[Link] 2006-08-30 at the
Wayback Machine. Long Island University. 1996.
9. *Virginia-Lee Webb. Art as Information: The African Portfolios of Charles Sheeler and
Walker Evans. In African Arts, Vol. 24, No. 1 (Jan., 1991), pp. 56-63+103-104.
The Art of Africa, the Pacific Islands, and the Americas: A New Perspective. In The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 39, No. 2, The Art of Africa, the
Pacific Islands, and the Americas (Autumn, 1981), pp. 1+4-56
Tim Teuten. Benin and Beyond. Christies Auction house (no date, retrieved 2007-08-17)
([Link] Archived (https://
[Link]/web/20041029094552/[Link]
[Link]?article=3) 2004-10-29 at the Wayback Machine.
The Museum of Modern Art Exhibition History List ([Link]
es/[Link]#1929), #39. African Negro Art (MoMA Exh. #39, March 18-May 19,
1935).

Dominique Zahan and Allen F. Roberts. The Two Worlds of Ciwara ([Link]
ble/3337775). In African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 2. (Summer, 2000), pp. 34–45+90-91].
Stephen R. Wooten. Antelope Headdresses and Champion Farmers: Negotiating Meaning
and Identity through the Bamana Ciwara Complex. In African Arts, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Summer,
2000), pp. 18–33+89-90
Elisabeth Salzhauer Axel, Nina Sobol Levent. Art Beyond Sight: A Resource Guide to Art,
Creativity, and Visual Impairment. AFB Press (2003). P.236. ISBN 0-89128-850-3
Thomas Buser. Experiencing Art Around Us. Thomson Wadsworth (2005). pp. 34–35.
ISBN 0-534-64114-8
Pascal James Imperato. The Dance of the Tyi Wara ([Link]
In African Arts, Vol. 4, No. 1. (Autumn, 1970), pp. 8–13+71-80.

Other reference works

Lillian E Pharr. Chi-Wara headdress of the Bambara: A select, annotated bibliography.
Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (1980). OCLC 8269403
Dominique Zahan. Antilopes du soleil: Arts et rites agraires d'Afrique noire. Edition A.
Schendl, Paris (1980). ISBN 3-85268-069-7

External links
Gallery BAMANA CHI WARA HEADDRESSES, MALI ([Link]
NA/BamanaChiWara/[Link]).
(in French)tyi wara: closeup images ([Link]
California State University: How do we distinguish between aesthetic analysis and
investigating the cultural context of works of art? ([Link]
ext_1.html).
[Link]: Chi Wara Headdress of the Bamana ([Link]
7024353/[Link]
 University of Virginia. ART IN CONTEXT: How is the Chi Wara Used? ([Link]
du/artmuseum/VirtualExhibitions/african/chiwara_context.html).
African Art Museum of the SMA Fathers at Tenafly, New Jersey: The Legend of Chi Wara (htt
ps://[Link]/web/20071008061431/[Link]
[Link]).
[Link]: Chi Wara mask images ([Link]
025612/[Link]
Library of the University of Virginia: Africa Masks exhibit ([Link]
RMC/exhib/[Link]/[Link]). Includes images and description of one male and one
female mask.
Humboldt State University: gallery of Chi Wara and other Bambara dancers ([Link]
[Link]/web/20100613235048/[Link]
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Myths of Origin in African Sculpture. Press Release,
February 3, 2003. ([Link]
[Link]/Vacnews/[Link]?form=2&ArticleId=107)
Genesis: ideas of origin in African sculpture ([Link]
dobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/73345), an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan
Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on chiwara
Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University (https://
[Link]/web/20130904181911/[Link]
west_africa/west_africa02.html)

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