FIG. 12 (right): Kòmò mask.
Bamana; Mali.
Early to mid 20th century.
Wood, horn, plant fi bers, quills, string, assorted
organic sacrifi cial materials. H: 46 cm.
Fowler Museum at UCLA, X77.392; Gift of Dr.
and Mrs. Joel Breman. Image © courtesy Fowler
Museum at UCLA. Photo: Don Cole, 2018.
FIG. 13 (below): Altar, boli.
Bamana; Mali.
Early to mid 20th century.
Wood, clay, sacrifi cial materials. H: 56 cm.
Collection of Mrs. Jerome (Ellen) Stern.
Photo: Steven Tucker, 2017. Courtesy of
Mrs. Jerome (Ellen) Stern..
A boli altar can be characterized as a potent
zoomorphic sculpture to be handled only by Kòmò
association members with the highest levels of
knowledge. Created using secret procedures and
materials prescribed by “the science of the trees”
(jiridon), it plays an essential role in Bamana
spiritual practices. This boli has been built up
over a wooden armature with layer upon layer
of sacrifi cial materials. Iron embedded within or
added to a boli is often invisible to the naked eye,
yet it activates and controls the life force, nyama,
thereby enhancing community well-being.
74
are among the blacksmith’s most prolifi c creations
and fundamentally illustrate how sustenance
springs forth from the anvil.
Essential to labor, family, and community life,
iron tools have also been rendered into objects
of social and economic status with sacred meanings
and ritual effi cacies. Hoe blades on ceremonial
objects, for example, work in tandem with
sculpted fi gurative elements to promote fertility
and guarantee survival. Other forged-iron items
are deployed to encourage life-giving rains or
to signal the social passages that assure human
continuity (fi gs. 14 and 15).
SECTION V: Iron’s Empowering Roles
In Sub-Saharan Africa, the world—plants, animals,
rivers, humans, words, gestures, music—is
alive with spirit, and there is no arbitrary divide
ART ON VIEW