Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Bobo
The ancestors of the 100,000 Bobo people arrived in West Africa almost 1200 years ago
and the Bobo now occupy western Burkina Faso, around Bobo-Dioulasso, and southern
Mali. The Bobo traditionally showed little interest in conquest. As a result, they made few
enemies and thereby managed to escape subjugation by the powerful Mossi who ruled from
Ouagadougou.
The Bobo cosmology revolves around the creator god Wuro, who creates balance in the
world by dividing everything into pairs. In the Bobo world view, human disruption to this
natural order can only be rectified by Wuro, but as Wuro may neither be addressed nor
spoken of nor depicted in any form, the Bobo communicate with Wuro through a mediating
deity, Do. That effort to commune with Do gives the Bobo their most recognisable cultural
forms, the renowned Bobo mask tradition, especially the famous butterfly and helmet
masks. They are worn during funeral rites, and when invoking Do in planting-time cere-
monies asking for rain and a good harvest. Other animals represented in Bobo masks in-
clude owls, buffaloes, antelopes, crocodiles and scorpions.
