Senufo Nyi-kar-yi ring, Ivory Coast Brass H.... Lot 13

Senufo Nyi-kar-yi ring, Ivory Coast Brass H. 9 cm Senufo Nyi-kar-yi ring, Ivory Coast H. 3 9/16 in Provenance : Former Jean-Paul Delcourt collection Former Bertrand Goy collection Exhibition and bibliography : - Visions d'Afrique, National Museum of History, Taïwan, 2003-2004, Catalogue p.90 See also Gabriel Convers, "Les Nyi-Kar-Yi de Watyênê?", Notes africaines, Dakar, IFAN, n° 60, 1953, pp. 108-110 A very fine example of a "ring of silence" featuring a stylised buffalo head. According to Father Gabriel Clamens, who witnessed the destruction of the Massa cult in Senufo country in the 1950s, these rings were used during the initiation of young people in the Lô society, among the Fodonon of the Ivory Coast. A very similar ring is in the collections of the Musée du quai Branly-Jacques Chirac (71.1966.85.2)