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The Collector(s) / Donor(s) Robert Zigler spent the most of his career in international development working for the Agency for International Development (USAID). Today, he is retired but leads a very active life in Washington, DC, where he serves as a docent at the National Museum of African Art (Smithsonian Institution). During tours in Ghana (1979-81) and Burkina Faso (1983-85), Zigler collected examples of the art produced in each of the countries. Most of his acquisitions came from African art traders who periodically visited his homes in Kumasi (Ghana) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Soon after he retired in 1985 he began looking for good "homes" for his collection. Zigler is a firm believer that art can and should be used as vehicle for teaching people about other cultures. Indeed, he has distributed his collection among eighteen institutions of higher education! In 1990, Michigan State University Museum was fortunate to receive 60 of the objects he collected in Burkina Faso and Ghana. Collector(s) / Donor(s) Statement The Object(s) Among the Bwa masks representing animals are usually associated with the histories of the families or lineages that own them. Such masks can appear at the initiations of young men and women, at burials and funeral celebrations, at annual renewal (harvest) festivals, and at market day performances. Christopher Roy (1987: 288) informs us that such events are organized by individual families as competitive events--each family striving to stage the "most elaborate and innovative performances." Zigler, in his collection notes, comments that this mask is from the southern Bwa village of Boni. Most of the masking traditions of the southern Bwa were recently "borrowed" from their neighbors, for instance, the Nuna (Roy 1987: 276). It therefore is not surprising to observe that Bwa and Nuna buffalo masks are quite similar in form. But they are not identical. Comparing this mask to the Nuna mask on display in the exhibition (7100.56), one can see that the Nuna mask is larger and the geometric designs on its surface more complex. Further Information Books and Articles Christopher D. Roy. Art of the Upper Volta Rivers. Meudon: Alain et Francoise Chaffin, 1987. Christopher D. Roy. "The Spread of Mask Styles in the Black Volta Basin," African Arts 20 (4) 1987: 40-47, 89-90. Christoper D. Roy. "Nature, Spirits, and Art in Burkina Faso," Art and Life in Africa: Recontextualizing African Art in the Cycle of Life. CD ROM conceived and developed by L. Lee McIntyre and Christopher D. Roy. The University of Iowa Art and Life in Africa Project, 1998. Norman Skougstad. Traditional Sculpture from Upper Volta. New York: The African-American Institute, 1978. John Wills. "Voltaic Peoples." I Am Not Myself: The Art of African Masquerade, ed. by H. Cole, pp. 34-39. Los Angeles: Museum of Cultural History (UCLA), 1985. Internet Resourcesnone
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