- [Elyan Hill] Is there anything you can tell us about
the different objects? About your identity, coming
from an Mossi ethnic group - So coming from Mossi ethnic
group is like really good because in my country, Mossi
ethic group is like the most dominant.
We have like a really cultural-centered like ways of
living, in most African countries. Even though you know we
were colonized by the French people, we like still
kept part of our cultures. I lived In the city, I was
born in the city, but then like that hasn't prevented me
from knowing a little bit, even not all, if its not all
of the culture, so like we keep some of the stuff like greeting.
But about the masks, I would say that like in
general masks are used for decorative purpose the
masks also used for, because masks are they,
people in my country they feel like masks have super powers,
like some of them are used for like the people go to the
mask and they ask them for a good harvest and
they also go to the masks for like fertility.
Because some womens cannot give birth. And since they think that
masks have super powers, and I don't know, I'm Christian,
but in like I heard, that people go to mask and
ask for fertility and actually get the fertility, so a
woman, she cannot give birth for twenty years, and then
like, she and her husband goes to the mask and does
some kind of rituals, and one year later she
gives birth to twins. I'm actually glad that you
and your team are researching about the masks, when I received
the email, I was like "wow" actually people interested
about knowing more about African cultures and all that.
Because the thing is its really good to do research in
African culture, but you have very limited access to
documentation. And that due to that fact
that like the elderly they die with all their knowledge.
- [Elyan Hill] What comes to mind when you think of
African brilliance? - When I think of African
brilliance, I think about like African culture.