Dogon Kanaga Masquerader

This Dogon Kanaga Masquerader doll was created several years as my first creation.  The Dogon will feature these masqueraders in public events; however, the mysteries of their "creation and function in rituals" is kept closely to their secret societies. Researchers have noted that one of their mysteries is linked to the dead with human skulls found in caves where the masks are kept.  In fact, the Kanaga Masks are worn at rituals called dama, whose goal is to transport the souls of deceased family members away from the village and to enhance the prestige of the deceased and his descendants by magnificent masked performances and generous displays of hospitality.


The kanaga is topped by a short pole to which two parallel blades are fixed perpendicularly. Two small flat boards are placed at their ends, upwards for the upper blade, downwards for the lower blade. The face of the mask is partly encircled by a crest of very stiff fibers, dyed either red or yellow.

When the mask is worn, the back of the dancer's head is covered with a hood of plaited fiber fringe at the bottom edge. The dancer wears a vest made of black strip-woven cloth and red broadcloth strips embroidered with white cowrie-shells

To the uninitiated, this mask evokes a bird spreading its wings. For those who have attained analogical knowledge through initiation, it is the symbol of man, axis of the world, pointing to both earth and sky.