Civilizations of Africa Blog: Paul Grever Musuem Post

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One of the first pieces the art patron encounters as they enter the exhibition floor is the Nuna peoples’ Butterfly Mask. The large mask is one of the larger objects at the museum and is almost impossible to miss. Given to the Museum by the Walt Disney Company, it is one of the few objects from Burkina Faso. The mask is a window into the culture and traditions of the people of Burkina Faso.

The large mask is shaped like the wings of a butterfly; the mask is painted with zig zags, triangles and circles, in red black and white making the mask big and bright. One of the most notable features is the mini face in the middle, with a equal sized mouth below it. Another feature is the animals attached at the top, small bird like figures on sticks rim the top of the mask.

To decipher what the mask means to the Nuna people, there first must be an examination of the Nuna culture. The Nuna people which reside just North of Ghana in Burkina Faso are a mainly agricultural people. They are mainly substance farmers concentrating on such necessary items as maize, rice peanuts and beans. They also use tobacco and sesame as a cash crop.[1] They also reside on hunting small game as well. What is truly interesting about these people is the political system in which they utilize. Unlike many other tribes they do not have a centralized government instead they have elders, of houses which gather together to fix the problems that arise. The final aspect of Nuna culture is religion; they believe in one single god and believe that the spirits reside in the wilderness.

When you compare the economy, the political structure and religion of the Nuna people it is easy to see what the mask stands for. The shape of the mask which is a butterfly could illustrate the agriculture side of the Nuna people. Butterflies are one of the insects that help pollinate and help spread plant life. The animals on top of the mask could reflect the hunting aspect of the Nuna people since they hunted small game or it could reflect the spirits of the wilderness. The centralized face and mouth of the mask could represent the elders and the elders voice, stressing the importance of listening to the leader of the family. Even the patterns on the wings represent important cultural aspects of the Nuna people. “The zigzag lines flanking the face signify the "path of the ancestors," a difficult moral path that all people must follow if they are to succeed in life. The checkerboard pattern represents ignorance and knowledge, dark and light.”[2] Finally the sheer size of the mask is a symbolic representation of power and respect for their creator spirit and way to communicate with the other side. The Butterfly mask not only is gorgeous to look at but it gives a view into the Nuna’s people culture, ideology, and political structure.