{"id":9092,"date":"2020-05-27T16:43:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-27T16:43:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/?p=9092"},"modified":"2020-05-27T18:25:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T18:25:57","slug":"babanki-elephant-mask-from-cameroon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/babanki-elephant-mask-from-cameroon\/","title":{"rendered":"Babanki elephant mask from Cameroon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant-157x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"157\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9093\" srcset=\"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant-157x300.jpg 157w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant-768x1470.jpg 768w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant-535x1024.jpg 535w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant-600x1148.jpg 600w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/babanki-elephant.jpg 1045w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 157px) 100vw, 157px\" \/><\/a>Q:  I purchased this mask about 11 years ago while on a study abroad trip in South Africa. Specifically, it was purchased in a shop that dealt in mask. I believe the town was just north of Johannesburg. I&#8217;m not sure exactly how much I payed but probably in the neighborhood of $100US. The shop included a label on the back stating it origin (Guru tribe of Ivory Coast) and purpose (royal mask- &#8220;A symbol of power for the king exclusively&#8221;). It also noted the age to be around 80 years. I don&#8217;t know how much of this is accurate. The mask is made of wood and measures approximately 31 in. X 10 in.<\/p>\n<p>I collected masks when I was younger and this was the crown jewel of my collection back then. The others were more tourist curios. All kinds of masks interest me but I&#8217;m probably most keen about African and Southeast Asian masks.  Daniel, 1706<\/p>\n<p>A:  I have previously posted a Guru elephant mask on this site.  Elephant masks are used in several parts of West Africa, so I decided to feature this beautifully designed and carved Babamli from the far away Western Wetlands of Cameroon. There are others, often painted, that also are very desireable. Daniel&#8217;s is the second one. Though it is a cheaply-made souvenir, it is in the Guru tradition&#8230; and a nice buy for a beginning collector who doesn&#8217;t want to spend much.  B-<a href=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront-172x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"172\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-9094\" srcset=\"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront-172x300.jpeg 172w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront-768x1341.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront-586x1024.jpeg 586w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront-600x1048.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/MaskFront.jpeg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 172px) 100vw, 172px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Q: I purchased this mask about 11 years ago while on a study abroad trip in South Africa. Specifically, it was purchased in a shop that dealt in mask. I believe the town was just north of Johannesburg. I&#8217;m not sure exactly how much I payed but probably in the neighborhood of $100US. The shop included a label on the back stating it origin (Guru tribe of Ivory Coast) and purpose (royal mask- &#8220;A symbol of power for the king exclusively&#8221;). It also noted the age to be around 80 years. I don&#8217;t know how much of this is accurate. The mask is made of wood and measures approximately 31 in. X 10 in. I collected masks when I was younger and this was the crown jewel of my collection back then. The others were more tourist curios. All kinds of masks interest me but I&#8217;m probably most keen about African and Southeast Asian masks. Daniel, 1706 A: I have previously posted a Guru elephant mask on this site. Elephant masks are used in several parts of West Africa, so I decided to feature this beautifully designed and carved Babamli from the far away Western Wetlands of Cameroon. There are others, often painted, that also are very desireable. Daniel&#8217;s is the second one. Though it is a cheaply-made souvenir, it is in the Guru tradition&#8230; and a nice buy for a beginning collector who doesn&#8217;t want to spend much. B-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9100,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9092\/revisions\/9100"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}