Headdress (chi wara) (early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Headdress (chi wara) (early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Chi wara—a mythical “farming beast”—was said to teach farming to the Bamana people. Carved patterns cover this female chi wara’s body, highlighting its muscles and emphasizing that it is no earthly animal, but rather an agricultural spirit that combines human, antelope, and anteater elements. This example emphasizes vertical space, with a kneeling human figure on the back. The figure is adorned with imported beads as well as small shells. Accompanied by women’s songs, male performers danced paired male-and-female chi wara headdresses affixed to basketry caps at agricultural competitions and weddings.

Object facts

• Title: Headdress (chi wara)
• Date: early 1900s
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood, metal, glass beads, seashells, string, and probably tar
• Dimensions: Overall: 45.2 x 4.8 x 12.4 cm (17 13/16 x 1 7/8 x 4 7/8 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1962.307

A detail from the museum

Chi wara headdresses look different depending on the region in which they were made.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.