The traditional religion of the Senufo people of northern Cote d'Ivoire, southeastern Mali and northern Burkina Faso, organized around the Poro, an initiatory institution that instructs Senufo men in graded stages, and its female counterpart the Sandogo, which gives women their own ritual and divinatory role. Poro instruction takes place at a sacred grove and uses carved masks and figures tied to each grade, kept and shown only within the society at the level a grade allows. Authority over a mask or an object of the grove rests with the Poro society that owns it, not with museums or collectors who hold examples removed from Senufo hands, so the atlas records that the institution exists and what kind of institution it is without describing what is seen inside a grove. The tradition remains active in Senufo communities today.
Facts
About This Record
Coverage NoteThis page is shorter than many others in the atlas, and that is a record artifact, not a judgment of how much Senufo Traditional Religion matters. Much of what Senufo Traditional Religion holds is kept in restricted custody, passed on through oral transmission among initiated or authorised practitioners, or both, in the way its restricted tradition note above already sets out, so there is less that outside, publishable sources can responsibly say. A short entry here does not mean Senufo Traditional Religion matters less than a tradition with a long one; it means the atlas can currently say only what it has been permitted to say. If you can point toward documented material the community has authorised for outside use, sign in and open a dispute on this page naming the source; it will be reviewed. 2 Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 1 Cultural Restriction
Restricted TraditionNo Poro mask is drawn here. The masks are graded society property whose sight is restricted, and the atlas neither reproduces one nor invents a substitute for one. What is recorded is that the society exists, what kind of institution it is, and that its material is held. 2 Origins
Place of OriginNorthern Cote d'Ivoire, southeastern Mali and northern Burkina Faso, homeland of the Senufo people. 1 Observance
Observance NotePoro instructs Senufo men through a sequence of graded initiations tied to a sacred grove, with a parallel institution, Sandogo, giving women their own ritual and divinatory role. 1 Learn More
Masks the Grove Keeps and Museums Debate
Senufo traditional religion, practiced across northern Cote d'Ivoire, southeastern Mali and northern Burkina Faso, is organized around the Poro, an initiatory institution that instructs Senufo men through graded stages, and its counterpart the Sandogo, which gives Senufo women their own ritual and divinatory role. Poro instruction takes place at a sacred grove and involves carved masks and figures tied to each grade, shown only within the society at the level a grade permits, and this article does not describe what is seen inside a grove or how a mask is used there.
What is public, and the subject of real scholarly and museum world debate, is the afterlife of Senufo ritual objects once they leave Senufo hands. Carved Poro masks and figures entered Western museum and private collections over the twentieth century, often without the consent of the societies that owned them, and Susan Gagliardi's fieldwork based study of the Senufo poro is among the scholarly work documenting both the institution's structure and the ethical questions its objects raise once displayed outside their own context. Authority over a mask or a grove object rests with the Poro society that owns it, not with whoever holds an example removed from Senufo hands, and Senufo communities continue to practice Poro and Sandogo today, a living institution rather than a source of museum pieces.
Correspondences & Relations
Cross-Tradition Connections
Objects and Practices of This Tradition
An outside ethnomusicologist's own account of the ethics of documenting Senufo Poro funeral rites, made for a French research institution's audiovisual strand, rather than an institutional production of the tradition itself.
Sources
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