Chiwara Headdress
The chiwara is the antelope headdress of the Bamana of Mali, a carved figure with a long neck, elegant horns and an openwork body, danced in pairs at the agricultural festivals in honor of the mythic being who, the Bamana say, taught humanity to farm. The dance re-enacts the teaching: the headdresses are tied to a cap on the heads of two dancers who leap and crouch like antelopes feeding, while the rest of the village raises the hoe to the rhythm. The long horns curve toward the sun, and the zigzag crest on the back of the older style recalls the sun's rays falling on the fields; two forms are