The Nuna people masks in the ritual of initiation

The sacred living masks that take part in ritual of initiation are slowly dying in Africa. Civilization puts them to rest. However in Burkina Faso, peoples of Bwaba, Mossi, Gurunsi, and Kurumba that profess animism, cultivate a cult of ritual mask, especially in region of Big Masks, in area from Bobo-Dioulasso to Boromo. The subject of the article are the zoomorphic masks of Nuna – the people that belongs to Gurunsi. In Zawara village, near the border with Ghana, o of the most important religious event with participation of the masks is Bouzouyu – the rite oh initiation. The Nuna people don’t have the griots, so the masks store the memory in of the people in form of symbols, signs and colours. The creation myth is contained in myth of revelation of the first mask to man. The mask is not only an object of religious cult – it is also the culture-factor that enriches imagination and philosophy, shapes fairy tales and poetry and. It is a folk work of art.Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00. Publikacja dofinansowana przez Fundację Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego oraz Katedrę Historii Sztuki Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego