Bwa plank mask (tall socketed board mask)
A tall narrow wooden board mask of the Bwa people of Burkina Faso, socketed above a face-piece, covered in fine-line geometric patterning in red, white and black, performed in Do spirit ceremonies.
The Bwa plank mask is the most visually distinctive masquerade form produced by the Bwa (Bwaba) of Burkina Faso and Mali, and the primary object through which the Bwa are represented in international collections. The mask consists of a tall, relatively narrow wooden plank — rising from roughly one to more than two metres in height — attached above a compact globular or flattened face-piece that carries a hooked beak, concentric-circle eyes, and a small mouth. The plank itself is the dominant visual surface: every centimetre is covered with fine-line geometric patterning in red ochre, white kaolin, and black, arranged in horizontal or diagonal fields of zigzags, checker grids, concentric diamonds, and hatched bands. Christopher D. Roy's Art of the Upper Volta Rivers (1987) is the foundational scholarly analysis of these graphic programmes and their ritual significance.
Plank masks are performed on behalf of Do (Dwo), the bush spirit associated with initiation, agricultural protection, and communal wellbeing. They appear at male initiation ceremonies, funerals of initiated elders, and major agricultural rites. The mask is socketed into a basketry cap worn by the dancer, so that the plank rises dramatically above the performer's head; large lateral 'butterfly' or 'hawk' wing projections on many examples amplify the visual impact. Repainting between performance cycles is a normal and expected feature, and multiple paint layers visible at losses are consistent with — and indeed positive evidence of — sustained ceremonial use.