Antique Beautiful Gurma Bracelet – 2 Pythons – Burkina Faso

Early to mid 20th century. Bronze gr. 109,3 (3.86 oz.); cm. 7,7 width x cm. 6,0 high (3.03″ x 3.36″). Beautiful work.

Gurma bracelets are not just ornaments. They can have ritual or symbolic uses.

The snake is a figure rich in meaning in West African cultures:

• it’s the ancestral progenitor or protective spirit of the village;
• it’s a totemic animal linked to the life force, rain and fertility;
• they can be used by healers or diviners (such as feticheurs) as tools to facilitate contact between the world of the living and that of the spirits;
• they can be ritually charged with specific powers especially of protection.

Gurma is an ethnic group living mainly in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, around Fada N’Gourma, and also in northern areas of Togo and Benin, as well as southwestern Niger.

The Gurma live in a wooded savanna that becomes drier and grassier to the north.

The primary religion practiced by the Gurma is ethnoreligion, consisting of practices deeply rooted in this groups ethnic identity. The Gurma enerate their ancestors and also pray to nature deities and propitiate them.

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