A Sogo Bo marionette puppet couple, the elongated face covered with brass-sheets of different shape, bulging globular eyes, the tip of the nose formed like a cross, the mouth incised, wooden sticks used as arms which are loosely connected to the body with rope, the female has big protruding breasts, both bodies covered with cloth; some age cracks, the bases weathered.

"Sogo bò, a puppet masquerade drama, pereformed today in many Bamana communities within the Ségou region in south central Mali is organized under the auspices if the kamalen ton, the village youth association. It is defined by the community as nyènajè, entertainment and tulon, play. The Sogo bò masquerade has a regional identity rather bthan being associated with a single ethnic group.Sogo bò did not originate with the Bamana, but with the Bozo fishermen. By the late nineteenth century, however, Bamana within Ségou began to adopt the masqueradetheater and throughout the last century itflourished in these farming communities." Mary Jo Arnoldi, Bamana Art of Existance in Mali, Museum for African Art, New York, Museum Rietberg, Zürich, edit. by Jean Paul Colleyn, 2003:77.

At the end of the photo-sequence, a fieldphoto by Mary Arnoldi of a Sogo Bò theatre.

A Sogo Bò puppet.

Lit.: Arnoldi, Mary Jo The puppet theatre in the Segou region in Mali, Ph. D. dissertation, Indiana University 1983; 64, Playing with Time: Art and Performance in Central Mali, Bloomington, Indiana, Indiana University Press, 1995.

sold

Height: 57 cm / 64 cm
Weight: 1,8 kg / 2,3 kg