Masks

Colonial era perception (Gore 2008)

-missionaries and colonial officers viewed masking with fascination and fear

-saw their power as a threat to ideological and political agendas

20th century anthropological approaches to masking (Gore 2008)

-functionalist understandings

-tended to focus on role of masking practices within the community

-ways in which contributed to making the wider, gendered community

-tended to reflect British and American dispositions rather than emerge from emic understandings of practices situated in time and place

Ebira of Nigeria (Picton 1990)

-eku: represent realm of the dead

-as part of New Year festivities eku said to come down in the form of masked performers

-masqueraders do not have to cover their face as identity only secret to women who shut themselves in their houses for the night

-having knowledge of who eku performers are is considered dangerous for women, can lead to witchcraft allegations

-serves to reinforce social differences between men and women

Fancy vs. fierce masks in Freetown, Sierra Leone (Nunley 1981)

-Freetown: founded by freed slaves, draw from other traditions

-fierce masks: originated in 19th century among Yoruba-descended sicret societies, various forms but often horned, many objects attached to costume

-fierce costumes serve to mediate the spirits

-fancy masks: also prob 19th century from Yoruba, decorated with bright colors, items like plastic flowers and Christmas tree ornaments, shiny items like foil and mirrors

-fancy masks intended for entertainment and pleasure

-fancy and fierce-type masks have been combined to reflect ideals of urban toughness, subvert oppositions between wild and town, danger and safety

Individuality in mask performance (Gagliardi 2018)

-masquerade performers act creatively in ways that generate new meanings and can be used to challenge or even subvert norms

-ideas of agency, invention, and audience

-ex: Cote d’Ivoire masquerade performers compete with each other for distinction and fame, reveal their identities

-audiences also play a role in the performance, interactive

Gon masquerade performance (Gore 2008)

-Bakwele people of Gabon

-constructed as a wild animal that ‘ran amok,’ killing all the animals in its path

-animals usually used in marriage exchanges, sidestepped such conventions and produced fresh meat for the community

-over time coopted by war leaders to use as a vehicle for assassinating war rivals

-subverts social order

Ekuecici mask’s lives of their own (Picton 1990)

-Ekuecici: ’eku of rubbish’

-represent servants of the domain of the dead, duty of policing crowd during festivals and funerary ceremonies

-costumes individual and unique to performer, do not represent particular character

-however masks themselves can gain reputation for healing, become ‘big eku’ (ekuobanyi)

-blood or other sacrifices made to the mask itself, magic medicines attached

Aesthetics of masking (Okafor 1991)

-form of drama in which aesthetics is used to create a sense of spectacle and wonder

-ex: man who performs Eru-wa-Mgbede in Nigeria talented acrobat, chews an herb to give him energy just before the performance and then seemingly ‘flies’

What is a mask (Picton 1990)

-’Mask’ is a word: comes from Arabic meaning to scoff, laugh, poke fun, etc

-’Mask’ is an idea: persona that one puts on, dramaturgical analogy

-’Mask’ is a metaphor: reveals, proclaims, hides, or denies some truth

-’Mask’ is an artifact: physical thing

What’s in a mask? (Picton 1990)

1. Masks enable a dramatic intention by effecting distance between the performer and audience, creating an identity in performance that is distanced from the everyday self

2. Some masks effect dramatic distance but also deny human agency: masker metaphysically re-identified, mask can efface his very existence

3. Masks that create dramatic distance in the context of performance but masks themselves are embodiments of metaphysical energy/presence/spirit

4. Other masks: none of these things, ex mask shaped but never worn

Masks and social structure

-secret societies cross-cutting lineage, can join through skill, choice, and sometimes payment

-way of distinguishing generations within a social structure

-however can also include ‘rituals of rebellion’, ex ways young men can ridicule their fathers

Masks and personhood

-making of new identities 

-can be form of training and education 

-esoteric forms of knowledge: can be things that everyone knows but only some get to know 

-ex: in Southern Nigeria in Leopard Societies learn how to roar like a lion, not very useful or complex but only ones allowed to do it 

Masks and cosmology

-elements of cosmological dimension might seem to be curative, kind of medicine 

-equally may be able to identify evil/witches 

-masks themselves objects of power, might still have it even when not being performed 

Masks and politics

-tension with political authorities since colonialism and missionization 

-seen as remnants of tradition, ‘backwardness’ 

-equally masks do not go away, partly because they are so powerful 

-tools through which politicians and others can use to recruit people 

-can be dark and nefarious, ex used to recruit child soldiers in war in Sierra Leone through membership in secret masquerade societies 

Masks as art

-balancing act between being not known and having to advertise their work to become known

-literature suggests that carvers don’t really know what they are carving, but equally may be very powerful people 

-carvers, blacksmiths, etc important people because have the power to transform 

-as art items value is associated with authenticity  

Sande Mask

-big fat shiny ones seen as most beautiful, captured feminine ideal of beauty 

-for women Sande kind of water spirit, controls medicines for childbirth 

-through initiation schooled in caring for their husbands, relations with co-wives, childbirth practice 

-young initiates whether boys or girls go off into the bush where they ritually die 

-Sande: criticism of circumcision and FGM 

-UN, NGOs, and missionaries trying to stop it, goal to create culturally sensitive alternatives 

Obasinjom (Ardener)

-looks like a crocodile or a bird, secret writing on it to empower the mask

-anti-witchcraft, supposed to be frightening

-introduction in 20th century of plantations in Cameroon, new forms of witchcraft regarding jealously of wealth, articulated through plantation labour

-Bakweri community spent 2000 pounds on buying one to purge community of witchcraft

Youth, Masking, and Modernity

-older men not themselves part of masquerade networks but control it

-’schoolboys’ involved in drug trade also involved in masquerade group, smoking crack

-groups like Agaba recruited into militant insurgency groups, big form of employment for young men

-warlords became contractors, political figures, stole oil and sold it back

Agaba masking (Pratten 2008)

-Ancestral masquerade: Ekpo society, historically tied to initiatory and performative violence, criminalized

-still masquerades at Christmas and New Years’, usually organized at by youth associations

-emergence in southeastern Nigeria of new masquerade cult: agaba, derives from traditional Igbo forms

-made up of young men, associated with street gangs, and militant groups

-”rugged” life of violence

masculinities and youth configured through an aesthetic of violence