62 images Created 30 Apr 2018
the Senufo
On several occasions ..Several hit-and-miss occasions, I traveled the scenic eight-hour long route from Ouagadougou to Bobo Dioulasso to Banfora to the Kome Province. Destination: the village of Sindou. Situated in the Black Volta region of southwest Burkina Faso, this stunning, otherworldly landscape of towering, time sculpted rock formations; undulating peaks; and breathtaking outcrops lies in a forested zone bordering southeastern Mali and northern Cotê d’Ivoire…. this is the homelands of the Senufo
The Senufo are a predominately animist West Africa people who are renowned for their artisan traditions in wood carving, woven cloths, and crafted adornment. They are mainly agriculturalist in the cultivation of cotton, corn, and peanuts – and within the mystic Dozo order, are skilled hunters and fierce soldiers (“West Africa’s Samurai”). As artisans, Senufo society is structured under different individual caste that include Fonombele (blacksmiths and basketry), Kulubele (woodcarvers), Kpeembele (brass casters), Djelebele (leather work), Tchedumbele (gunsmiths), Numu (smithing and weavers), as well as the Fejembele (hunters, musicians, potters, diviners, healers, and grave-diggers), all under a strict 7-year apprenticeship to initiation process that is passed from generation to generation. Throughout their vast ancestral region, Senufo music is well loved as they are adept at playing a broad range of wind, stringed, and percussive instruments.
The people are a warm, kind, and generous people not to be taken for granted! Over time and history, they remain fierce defenders of their traditions and way-of-life having resisted the spread of Islam, European colonialism, and the onslaught of Christian missionaries…. This has placed the Senufo among the African societies that have largely preserved and maintained their culture, customs, and traditions.
Spring of 2010, I had the fortune – and the luck of timing, to attend a traditional Senufo ‘wet funeral’ ceremony and the ‘dry funeral’ ceremony. The ‘wet funeral’ is the first part of an elaborate ritual that occurs a few days following a death. A year or more after the burial of the deceased the Yagbaga or ‘dry funeral’ takes place during the period between the end of the harvest season and the dry season. Dry funeral is the important purification ritual and bestows protection for the deceased in the afterlife.
During this celebration of life and death, the entire village of the deceased, along with neighboring communities, transforms into a vibrant frenzy complete with pulsating music, a mystical air, with children scattering everywhere – led by colorfully adorned dancers wearing carved wood animal masks, from head to toe, that are used to drive out negative spirits and invoke the ancestors to welcome the deceased. The traditional spirit masks are crafted by clans from the surrounding villages as tribute to the ancestors.
From sun up till sun down, and over days ..I felt and saw the spirits
The Senufo are a predominately animist West Africa people who are renowned for their artisan traditions in wood carving, woven cloths, and crafted adornment. They are mainly agriculturalist in the cultivation of cotton, corn, and peanuts – and within the mystic Dozo order, are skilled hunters and fierce soldiers (“West Africa’s Samurai”). As artisans, Senufo society is structured under different individual caste that include Fonombele (blacksmiths and basketry), Kulubele (woodcarvers), Kpeembele (brass casters), Djelebele (leather work), Tchedumbele (gunsmiths), Numu (smithing and weavers), as well as the Fejembele (hunters, musicians, potters, diviners, healers, and grave-diggers), all under a strict 7-year apprenticeship to initiation process that is passed from generation to generation. Throughout their vast ancestral region, Senufo music is well loved as they are adept at playing a broad range of wind, stringed, and percussive instruments.
The people are a warm, kind, and generous people not to be taken for granted! Over time and history, they remain fierce defenders of their traditions and way-of-life having resisted the spread of Islam, European colonialism, and the onslaught of Christian missionaries…. This has placed the Senufo among the African societies that have largely preserved and maintained their culture, customs, and traditions.
Spring of 2010, I had the fortune – and the luck of timing, to attend a traditional Senufo ‘wet funeral’ ceremony and the ‘dry funeral’ ceremony. The ‘wet funeral’ is the first part of an elaborate ritual that occurs a few days following a death. A year or more after the burial of the deceased the Yagbaga or ‘dry funeral’ takes place during the period between the end of the harvest season and the dry season. Dry funeral is the important purification ritual and bestows protection for the deceased in the afterlife.
During this celebration of life and death, the entire village of the deceased, along with neighboring communities, transforms into a vibrant frenzy complete with pulsating music, a mystical air, with children scattering everywhere – led by colorfully adorned dancers wearing carved wood animal masks, from head to toe, that are used to drive out negative spirits and invoke the ancestors to welcome the deceased. The traditional spirit masks are crafted by clans from the surrounding villages as tribute to the ancestors.
From sun up till sun down, and over days ..I felt and saw the spirits
