Rare Senufo Poro Secret Society Dance Rattle

This dance rattle, from the Senufo people of West Africa, has been carved from a single piece of wood. It has a stylised bird figure at each end. A pair of metal symbols are beneath each bird and it is these which rattle when the instrument is shaken by a dancer.

The bird figures have their wings out-spread and their angular heads pointed downwards.

The crusty, black and layered patina of the item is consistent with much use and significant age – a 19th century dating is readily defensible. The patina is consistent with other Senufo pieces now in museums and which entered western collections around 1900.

The crusty patina comes from a mixture of the owners possibly having smeared the instruments with blood from animal sacrifices,

Traditionally, the Senufo saw no gap between the real world and the spirit world. In order to accommodate and attempt to harness the forces between man and nature with all its attendant spirits, the Senufo established secret societies. They were deemed to be ‘secret’ because members learned things that could not be revealed to non-members. The most powerful of these societies was the Poro into which all boys were initiated. Masked dances and other ceremonies were associated with the rites of the Poro. Bird figures – often hornbill-like birds but otherwise more stylised, generic birds – were the emblem of the Poro and seen as the primary symbol of the Poro leadership. And so it is likely that this rattle was associated with Poro rites.

The Senufo people, also known as the Siena, Senefo, Sene, Senoufo, and Syénambélé, are a West African ethnolinguistic group. Senufo subgroups are to be found in the northern Ivory Coast,  southeastern Mali, and western Burkina Faso. One sub-group, the Nafana, is found in northwestern Ghana.

The rattle is in excellent condition with superb patina. Few such rattles have been published.