Featured Help with most unusual African (?) mask

Happy Easter everyone!

I found this at a garage sale a while back & just came across it again. I thought it was a mask, but the actual place for your face is pretty small and there's no holes for you to see out of it?
Also it has the tallest ...top piece? that I've ever seen.
Is this a mask or just a tourist piece?
Where is it from?
Anything else about it, I'd be grateful to learn.
Thank you!

 

Nice piece. Missing its fringe, but that often happens.
I don't know if it is an authentic dance mask though, so tagging @2manybooks .

 

Ditto AJ- That piece might actually be non-airport art(!). Be great if it was a dance piece-old in African Art terms is relative (like 1950's). For we mere mortals a 19th cent find is almost unheard of these days-still nice.

 

I see honest age, an' no small value.
Very nice, Jmag!

 

Your mask is from Burkina Faso, and is a type that is usually credited to the Bobo, Gurunsi, and Nuna people. It depicts a hornbill bird. "Birds are messengers who communicate between man and the supernatural world, and they also represent freedom. The hornbill represents harmonious family life, and is associated with the rainy season".

Esther A. Dagan: Man and His Vision: The Traditional Wood Sculpture of Burkina Faso. Galerie Amrad African Arts, 1987.

https://www.maskmuseum.org/mask/nuna-hornbill-1/

Your mask does shows signs of age and possible use. The size and awkward shape make it less likely that it was made for sale, but it can be very difficult to be sure about the age and use of masks unless they come with some specific history.

 

Thank you everyone!
This site is amazing (& the people who help us)!!
Happy Easter