Masked performer wearing vertical Chi wara headdress, Bougouni village, Mali

"Bamana headdresses are zoomorphic in form and are carved in wood in male and female pairs, each attached to a basketry cap that is worn on a dancer's head. The headdress is inspired mostly by the roan antelope, but distinctive features of other creatures symbolic to the Bamana, including the aardvark and pangolin, are sometimes fused together in one piece. While drawing upon established regional form conventions, the Bamana sculptor also deploys his own imagination to endow each headdress with unique qualities." [LaGamma A., 2002: Genesis, Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture. Yale University Press]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon traveled to Africa from March 17, 1970 to July 17, 1970.