Bambara masks are used during rituals of initiation, and in the occasion of other events like weddings, births, circumcisions, deceases, funerals, purifications of objects and beings, and so on. Bambara masks receive offerings and sacrifices, and they are even solemnly buried following an appropriate rite when its role of intermediation has ended, and lost their sacred character.
The mask depicts a streamlined human face, pointed chin, small eyes, great nose, small mouth and salient lips. It is ended by vertical horns that represent the "dyo" societies in reference to the world of the spirits. The nose is pronounced and of remarkable size. Among the Bambara, it is the organ of the feeling, and therefore of the cohesion and the social agreement. The mouth, enemy of the man and sometimes of the society, is small and sometimes nonexistent.
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