Dan

The Dan are a Mande-speaking people of the forests along the border of north-western Ivory Coast and Liberia, where they are officially called Yacouba and were once known to outsiders as Gio. Their traditions place their origins in the western Sudan, and by the 700s they were living in the savanna of the northern Ivory Coast.

Political turmoil, population growth and exhausted land drove them south of the Nimba range and into the high forest in the 900s. There they cleared fields each year for rice and staples and became known as fierce warriors, whose chiefs fought long wars against the neighbouring Kru.

Their ritual life centred on the Gle mask ceremonies and on Gor, a men's society named after the leopard and devoted to peacemaking, while their carved masks became the most celebrated art of the region.