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Source Description
Nearly five feet tall, this serpent headdress towered above crowds when danced. Its two faces seemed to look in all directions. Secured by a conical framework of palm branches on a costumed man’s head, it appeared at key points in initiation rites for both boys and girls. This multi-colored snake may be the serpent-spirit Ninkinanka. It can be likened to the rainbow, whose changing colors evoke how boys transform into men during initiation. A staged circa 1954 photograph depicts the serpent headdress now at the CMA. Serpent masquerades stopped in the mid-1950s when most Nalu and Baga people converted to Islam.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
136459
label
Serpent Headdress
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
136459
contentType
object
title
Serpent Headdress
description
Nearly five feet tall, this serpent headdress towered above crowds when danced. Its two faces seemed to look in all directions. Secured by a conical framework of palm branches on a costumed man’s head, it appeared at key points in initiation rites for both boys and girls. This multi-colored snake may be the serpent-spirit Ninkinanka. It can be likened to the rainbow, whose changing colors evoke how boys transform into men during initiation. A staged circa 1954 photograph depicts the serpent headdress now at the CMA. Serpent masquerades stopped in the mid-1950s when most Nalu and Baga people converted to Islam.
date
late 1800s–early 1900s
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Mask
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 148 cm (58 1/4 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Guinea, possibly Baga-style maker
accession
1960.37
Source extras
tec
Wood (Nauclea pobeguinii) and paint
tombstone
Serpent Headdress, late 1800s–early 1900s. Africa, West Africa, Guinea, possibly Baga-style maker. Wood (Nauclea pobeguinii) and paint; overall: 148 cm (58 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection, 1960.37
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
In the context of boys' initiations, the serpent headdress was sometimes identified as the rainbow, which the Baga and their neighbors associate with beginnings and endings, life and death, and the continuation of lineages.
citations
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Case Western Reserve University. 1975. <em>Traditions and Revisions : Themes from the History of Sculpture</em>. Cleveland, Kent, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art ; Distributed by the Kent State University Press, cat. 117.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. 1989. <em>African Art : A Brief Guide to the Collection : The Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Museum, fig. 28.
citation
<em>The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals</em>. 2022 Second ed. New York: Oxford University Press, fig. 3.6, p. 83-84.
citation
Franklin, David, C. Griffith Mann, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2012. <em>Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, p. 286-7.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” August 10, 1960, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisition Press Release,” October 25, 1960, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
citation
Wixom, William. "Two African Tribal Sculptures." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>48, no. 3 (March 1961): 39-45.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 38, fig 1-3; Mentioned: p. 40
citation
William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. <em>The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World</em>. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.
page_number
Mentioned: p. 11, 17, cat. no. 18
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 302
citation
Wixom, William D. “African Art in the Cleveland Museum of Art.” <em>African Arts</em> 10, no. 3 (1977): 16–88.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 23, fig. 11; mentioned: p. 24
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 410
citation
Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Images of the Mind.</em> Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.
page_number
Reproduced: [p. 22]
citation
Robbins, Warren M., and Nancy Ingram Nooter. <em>African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989</em>. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 143, fig. 247
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 12, p. 54 - 55
citation
Petridis, Constantine. “Spirit-Bringer-of-Riches: News on Cleveland's serpent headdress.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em> 56, no. 5 (September/October 2016): 14-15.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 14; Mentioned: p. 14, 15
citation
Petridis, Constantine. "Not Just a Snake: New Light on the Serpent Headdress at the Cleveland Museum of Art."<em> Tribal Art 21</em>, no. 1 (Winter 2016): 122-127.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 122, fig. 1a & b; p. 127, fig. 9
citation
Curtis, Marie Yvonne. <em>Baga</em>. Milan, Italy : 5 Continents Editions, 2018.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 77, pl. 12; mentioned: pp. 39, 123
citation
Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 90, no. 4.4
creditline
The Norweb Collection
sketchfabId
6d9e14804c32400292a362b89c5010f4
updatedAt
2026-06-18 21:16:12.433000
sourceId
136459
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood (Nauclea pobeguinii) and paint
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4bde8c0f36862e55