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Source Description
<em>Chi wara</em>—a mythical “farming beast”—was said to teach farming to the Bamana people. Carved patterns cover this female chi wara’s body, highlighting its muscles and emphasizing that it is no earthly animal, but rather an agricultural spirit that combines human, antelope, and anteater elements. This example wears earrings and a nose ring of imported metals and beads. Its carver—a blacksmith—used a naturalistic style common south of the city of Bamako. Accompanied by women’s songs, male performers danced paired male-and-female chi wara headdresses affixed to basketry caps at agricultural competitions and weddings.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
141744
label
Headdress (chi wara)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
141744
contentType
object
title
Headdress (chi wara)
description
<em>Chi wara</em>—a mythical “farming beast”—was said to teach farming to the Bamana people. Carved patterns cover this female chi wara’s body, highlighting its muscles and emphasizing that it is no earthly animal, but rather an agricultural spirit that combines human, antelope, and anteater elements. This example wears earrings and a nose ring of imported metals and beads. Its carver—a blacksmith—used a naturalistic style common south of the city of Bamako. Accompanied by women’s songs, male performers danced paired male-and-female chi wara headdresses affixed to basketry caps at agricultural competitions and weddings.
date
early to mid-1900s
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Mask
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 44.5 x 66 cm (17 1/2 x 26 in.)
cul
Africa, West Africa, Mali, Bamana-style blacksmith-carver
accession
1965.325
Source extras
tec
Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers
tombstone
Headdress (chi wara), early to mid-1900s. Africa, West Africa, Mali, Bamana-style blacksmith-carver. Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers; overall: 44.5 x 66 cm (17 1/2 x 26 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe, 1965.325
collection
African Art
didYouKnow
<em>Chi wara</em> headdresses look different depending on the region they were made in. The style of this example tells us it was likely made in the Djitoumou region of southern Mali.
citations
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. 16.
citation
May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, Barbara J Bradley, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2001. <em>Knockouts : A Pocket Guide</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 68, pp. 66-7, repr. color p. 66; listed p. 118.
citation
CMA 1991: Handbook, p. 147.
citation
Petridis, Constantijn. <em>South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. </em>Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. 3, p. 36 - 37
citation
Petridis, Constantine., "New Light on African Art", Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine</em>. Vol. 43 no. 06, Summer 2003
page_number
Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7
citation
Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In <em>Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display</em>. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.
page_number
Mentioned: pp. 119-120
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. 10, p. 12, cat. no. 3
citation
Art Institute of Chicago, Constantijn Petridis, and Martha G. Anderson. Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. 2020, 26.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 25-26, fig. 4
creditline
Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:17:07.189000
sourceId
141744
dept
African Art
coll
African Art
med
Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4ab9a433ed690fe7