Les masques « Krou » de Côte-d’Ivoire

Abstract

It is their "cubism" aesthetic – and the admiration of artists from the beginning of the 20th century – that has rendered the "kru" masks so famous. Still they have never been observed in the field and there is no certainty as to the population who has in fact produced and used them. Nothing is known of their function, or of the conditions in which they performed. And what about the aesthetic judgement of the population who used them on these facial masks now on museum display, deprived of their headdresses and other ornaments? This paper tries to bring answers to these questions using various approaches, confronting facts of diverse natures. Facts such as: two series of masks on display in the Musée Africain de Lyon, missionary archives, ethnographic and art history literature, a little-known text by Georges Thomann, etymologies, field photographs from various periods, and finally, reports of recent field investigations with the inhabitants of a village fom the Godie ethno-linguistic group. Some facts emerge from this confrontation: masks of this type seem to have been made by different groups belonging to the linguistic group named Kru: Bakwe, Godie, and, in a more recent past, Neyo. In Godie groups, the masks, "cubist" or not, were well differentiated and performed in a hierarchical sequence. Further field investigations should be conducted in order to bring answers to some of the remaining questions.

Keywords

• Kru
• Krumen
• Grebo
• Ubi
• Bakwe
• Godie