Bissau's carnival is a masquerade scaled up to the street. The Bijagó islands carve ox, shark and stingray heads worn across the head and shoulders for the fanado initiation — wood smoked almost black, marked with flat white chalk triangles, hung with raffia in uneven bulk, fitted with real horns that push forward and out.

On the capital's floats those same animals come back in papier-mâché and gloss enamel, painted by hand with the strokes still showing, under banners lettered at full arm's length. This system keeps both registers legible: dark carved ground, chalk geometry, and enamel colour laid flat.