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The Spirit of the Kankurang

Costanza Rossi

Italy

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A young Hamer boy (Ethiopia) stands beneath a flowering tree, moments before his bull jumping rite of passage. The last glimpse of boyhood, suspended in an Eden-like stillness, before stepping into manhood—marriage, cattle, and the responsibilities of life.

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Nominee

Before the Passage

The Kankurang, guardian spirit of Gambia’s Mandinka people, emerges in ritual costume of bark and fiber. Both feared and revered, it embodies protection, tradition, and the transmission of ancestral knowledge across generations.

Bronze

The Silent Blossom portrays a young Suri child from Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, adorned with traditional body paint and blossoms. His gaze reflects innocence and resilience, embodying the fragile harmony of tradition, nature, and cultural identity.