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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) Robert Zigler spent the most of his career in international development working for the Agency for International Development (USAID). Today, he is retired but leads a very active life in Washington, DC, where he serves as a docent at the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution). During tours in Ghana (1979-81) and Burkina Faso (1983-85), Zigler collected examples of the art produced in each of the countries. Most of his acquisitions came from African art traders who periodically visited his homes in Kumasi (Ghana) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Soon after he retired in 1985 he began looking for good "homes" for his collection. Zigler is a firm believer that art can and should be used as vehicle for teaching people about other cultures. Indeed, he has distributed his collection among eighteen institutions of higher education! In 1990, Michigan State University Museum was fortunate to receive 60 of the objects he collected in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s) Christopher Roy (1987: 218), who has written a great deal on the art traditions of Burkina Faso, reports that among the Nuna there are two major types of masks. "Masks that have descended from the sky and are, as a result, the oldest masks in the community are sacred masks, called wankr. These are masks that have been revealed to their owners . . . when not being worn are stripped of their costumes and become sacrificial altars to Su [the great creator deity of the Nuna]. Revealed masks dance only on ritual occasions. Other masks may be the inventions of their owners . . . called wamu . . . their primary function is to dance and entertain the villagers. They are able to travel through the bush to appear at market day dances or funerals some distance from their home village. These invented masks attract large numbers of spectators at performances, especially on market days during the dry season. Although they are less sacred than the revealed masks, they also embody the spirit of Su, and the Nuna do not consider them to be inferior in any way to the wankr." Nuna masks are always worn with a vegetal fiber costume. When a mask represents a four-legged creature, like the buffalo, the performer carries two long sticks that represent the beast's front legs. The buffalo is one of a number of animals appearing in Nuna masquerade performance. In this context the masks do not represent specific animals, but spirits of the bush/nature that take the form of these animals. This buffalo mask is larger, and the geometric designs on its surface more complex than the Bwa mask (7100.24) displayed in the exhibition. Further Information Books and Articles Christopher D. Roy. Art of the Upper Volta Rivers. Meudon: Alain et Francoise Chaffin, 1987. Christopher D. Roy. "The Spread of Mask Styles in the Black Volta Basin," African Arts 20 (4) 1987: 40-47, 89-90. Christoper D. Roy. "Nature, Spirits, and Art in Burkina Faso," Art and Life in Africa: Recontextualizing African Art in the Cycle of Life. CD ROM conceived and developed by L. Lee McIntyre and Christopher D. Roy. The University of Iowa Art and Life in Africa Project, 1998. Norman Skougstad. Traditional Sculpture from Upper Volta. New York: The African-American Institute, 1978. John Wills. "Voltaic Peoples." I Am Not Myself: The Art of African Masquerade, ed. by H. Cole, pp. 34-39. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History (UCLA), 1985. Internet Resourcesnone
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