experts at imitating the antelope; they leap and
turn, moving their heads and feet like the antelope.
In fact, according to the Bamana, any person who
tried to separate the two dancers, male and female,
representing the great teacher spirit Chiwara
would be killed. Thus, the dance carries with it
moral lessons, social implications, and religious
symbolism.
One is struck by the beauty of the dance,
where the dancers suggest fertility, reproduction,
propitiation of the spirits and ancestors, and grat-
itude to the great agricultural teacher. The move-
ment of the dancers is grounded in hundreds of
years of tradition, and the dancers demonstrate
the vignettes of culture and the nuances of com-
munication in the Bamana society as they dance.
They become, just for the time of the dance, the
full embodiment of Bamana men and women.
Children can see their own history in the dances
of the experts.
Sculptures and Other ArtThere are three principal kinds of Chiwara
sculptures. Each one represents a certain region
of the Bamana country. For example, the style
that has the vertical antelope shape is usually
found in the eastern part of the country between
Koutialia and Segu. This style reduces the body
and hoofs to a minimum, but elongates the neck
and the horns. The male antelope carries a
mane, and the female with a slender neck has a
young baby on the back.
A second kind of sculpture is more naturalistic
that the first. The head of the image is attached to
the body with metal clips. This type of sculpture has
not gained wide popularity because it defies the gen-
eral idea in African art, which is unity of the subject
and material. One rarely finds African art that is
made of pieces hammered or clipped together. Yet
there is a form of this in some parts of Mali.164 Chiwara
Masked performer with antelope headdress (Ciwara, Chiwara). Bamako (national district), Mali.
Source: Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives. National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution.