Bidjogo Corubá, Ceremonial Back Adornment

History

Off the shore of Guinea Bissau lie about thirty islands that comprise the Bijago (Bissagos) archipelago. The Bijago are known from early chroniclers’ accounts for their daring raids on shipping along the African coast using huge canoes. The economy of the archipelago is based on the cultivation of rice, palm oil, and on fishing. The society is highly structured by means of institutions such as matrilinear clans, the council of elders, age classes, and the priestess. Age groups cover about seven levels among males from infancy to old age. Martial virtues were cultivated by an age-set system that associated young men with powerful beasts of the sea and land. The Bijago society continues to practice its many religious rituals. Among these, are male initiations, which today may not exceed two months, but formerly ran over several years, and the women’s, which characteristically consist of offering access to adult status for boys who have died before being initiated. This is a recuperative initiation, performed by women who are possessed by the spirit of the deceased. The matriarchal order was so strong that the women selected their men and could force divorce on their husbands, the man keeping the children.

The sculptor is a voluntarily engaged artisan who, through his periodic activity in connection with ceremonies of initiation and worship, is familiar with numerous secrets. Each villager may sculpt initiation masks, head decorations, statuettes, vessels, and so on. The heaviest masks are worn by the age group that is not yet considered an adult. These represent, in a realistic manner, marine animals or wild bulls. While young boys might wear calf and fish masks, older uninitiated youths wear those depicting wild bulls, sharks, hippopotami and swordfish. Their dances are unpredictable and violent to accord with the character of the animal represented and their own undomesticated nature. The masks are worn either on top of the head or in front of it. The dancers imitate these dangerous animals that symbolize beings that are still untamed, as they have not been initiated. The masks are danced by boys and young men during the ceremonies that precede and follow the phases of initiation. Besides ritual occasions, nowadays they also appear in secular contexts, on days that commemorate historical events, and when important people visit.