René Serrano Rodriguez Blog

This is another piece that I am fortunate to keep in my place. It is a wonderful Kirdi piece dating back to around 1800, which I acquired in 2014. In Cameroon (Central Africa), there is a small ethnic group called the "Kirdi" (The Pagans). This tribe of nomadic farmers, known since 1600 for their colorful accessories, provided me with this beautiful loincloth in an African object market in the heart of Brussels. Married women or those entering mature age wear this type of "loincloth" (a kind of loincloth made up of small metal strips), which also serves as an indicator of status in their society. The tribe, active since 1600, continued to use this type of accessory until 1961 when women were compelled to dress completely by government instructions. I'm sharing other Kirdi pieces from different collections.

It was in Valle de Bravo, Mexico, when I acquired this beautiful ritual mask from the "Bobo" tribe. I was visiting a hotel where I had to create a series of photographs for its virtual tour of the facilities when I came across this piece. I knew something about this tribe because I had an excellent art history class at Beaux-Arts Tournai. The African section in the curriculum was incredible and well-developed by my teacher Viviane Guelfi. The Bobo ethnic group is located in Africa, specifically on the border between Burkina Faso with 100,000 inhabitants and Mali with about 50,000. The Bobo ethnic group speaks a language called Mandé, primarily spoken in this region of West Africa. The Bobos are farmers, cultivating mainly millet, sorghum, and cotton, from which they make their clothes and generate some sales. Without a centralized government, they organize into lineages where the elders form a council and make decisions. The idea of a "chief" is profoundly "s