Senufo Brass Bush Cow Pendant

A brass pendant in the form of a bush cow, with a suspension loop on the back, applied spiral decoration and large curved horns projecting from the front. The bush cow, or African buffalo, stands for power, strength and virility, qualities that Senufo men, and particularly Poro initiates, sought to acquire. The animal is also associated with healing and magical ability within elite healer societies, where ancestral wisdom is held to derive from mythical bush cows, and pendants of this form were worn as protective amulets.