Bronze Buffalo in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2020

Buffalo
9th–14th century

Middle Niger civilization

Object Details

Title: Buffalo

Date: 9th–14th century

Geography: Mali

Culture: Middle Niger civilization

Medium: Bronze

Dimensions: H. 9 × W. 5 × D. 13 1/2 in. (22.9 × 12.7 × 34.3 cm) (without stand)

Classification: Metalwork-Sculpture

Credit Line: Private Collection


The bush buffalo figures notably in an essential episode of the Sunjata epic in which Kamissa, a shape-shifting sorceress from the land of Dô, transforms herself into a Buffalo Woman. Within the context of Mande symbolism and legend, any leader wishing to establish his authority and power over a landscape or waterway had to enter into a contract agreement with its guardian spirit, or baafaro, a composite water animal.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/765619