The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Brown headdress with orange undertones shaped like chi wara, a four-legged mythical creature. It's head elongates into a muzzle that is a similar size to its entire body and crouched legs, connected to the head by a long neck. A donkey-like ear extends back horizontally from the middle of the face, and long, spiral patterned horns curve out from the back of the head, meeting at their ends.

Headdress (chi wara)

early to mid-1900s

Africa, West Africa, Mali, Bamana-style blacksmith-carver

Wood, cowrie shells, glass beads, possibly aluminum, iron alloy, upholstery studs, and natural fibers
Overall: 44.5 x 66 cm (17 1/2 x 26 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Ralph M. Coe in memory of Ralph M. Coe 1965.325
Location: 108A African

Did You Know?

Chi wara headdresses look different depending on the region they were made in. The style of this example tells us it was likely made in the Djitoumou region of southern Mali.

Description

Chi wara—a mythical “farming beast”—was said to teach farming to the Bamana people. Carved patterns cover this female chi wara’s body, highlighting its muscles and emphasizing that it is no earthly animal, but rather an agricultural spirit that combines human, antelope, and anteater elements. This example wears earrings and a nose ring of imported metals and beads. Its carver—a blacksmith—used a naturalistic style common south of the city of Bamako. Accompanied by women’s songs, male performers danced paired male-and-female chi wara headdresses affixed to basketry caps at agricultural competitions and weddings.
  • 1954
    (J.J. Klejman Gallery, New York, NY)
    1954-1965
    Mrs. Ralph M. Coe [Dorothy deWolf Tracey, 1890-1966] Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    1965-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Cleveland Museum of Art, and Henry John Drewal. 1989. African Art : A Brief Guide to the Collection : The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Museum, fig. 16.
    May, Sally Ruth, Jane Takac, Barbara J Bradley, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 2001. Knockouts : A Pocket Guide. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 68, pp. 66-7, repr. color p. 66; listed p. 118.
    CMA 1991: Handbook, p. 147.
    Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 3, p. 36 - 37
    Petridis, Constantine., "New Light on African Art", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 06, Summer 2003 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 6-7 archive.org
    Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Mentioned: pp. 119-120
    William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 10, p. 12, cat. no. 3
    Art Institute of Chicago, Constantijn Petridis, and Martha G. Anderson. Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago. 2020, 26. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 25-26, fig. 4
  • Artlens Exhibition 2017. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 24, 2017-May 29, 2019).
    CMA 1965: "Year in Review," Bulletin, LII (November 1965), p, 152, no. 22.
    Year in Review: 1965. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27-November 14, 1965).
    Kansas City, MO, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World (1962), cat. no. 3.
  • {{cite web|title=Headdress (chi wara)|url=false|author=|year=early to mid-1900s|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1965.325