Notes on Initiation Rites and Masquerades Module 7 done 1
Cross River Female Initiation
In the early 20th century through the 1970s, Cross River female initiation was common.
A special room in the initiate's household was prepared for her seclusion.
If she had a sister or cousin also being initiated, they might share a room to alleviate boredom.
This room was referred to in English as the fattening house.
Girls in the same area might begin the process simultaneously, but they did so in their own compounds, usually acting as a group only at the outset and conclusion.
Initiation usually began when a girl was about 12 or 13 years old (although it could take place later), and might continue from for several weeks or several years—even up to seven—depending on the family or fiancé's wealth.
Among some groups, fiancés were permitted to visit initiates, who might give birth while in seclusion, but other ethnicities insisted on virginity until seclusion ended.
Sometimes a particularly well-loved bride might be returned to the fattening house after the birth of her first child, to return her to robust health.
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, it was usually abbreviated to a period of about five weeks.
During the fattening house period, girls' lives changed abruptly.
From a very active life that required them to perform multiple chores—including fetching water for the household repeatedly on a daily basis—they were encouraged to sleep and rest, their only exercise the dances they were taught to perform.
Meals that had been reasonable but light on meat became rich feasts that were served throughout the day, with herbal medicines administered to aid digestion.
If a girl had not yet reached menarche, this lifestyle shift often prompted it.
Daily life became a combination of instruction from elderly women who went from house to house to visit the initiates, feeding, sleeping, practicing dancing, and being pampered through massage, the application of white cosmetic kaolin clay or black vegetable dye in patterns, red camwood powder, hairdressing, and other traditional cosmetics.
Instruction focused on child care, nutrition, and how to manage a husband, but also included some esoteric knowledge, folklore, and medicines.
The regional practice of nsibidi, a pictographic system of communication, was sometimes inscribed on their skin—particularly the symbol for love and marriage.
The vanished maidens not only grew physically and educationally, they underwent a period of rest and pampering unknown to small children and married women.
Their skin grew pale from the absence of the sun, and they became mysterious objects of speculation.
Chokwe Masquerades
A designated circle within the camp is the area where the masquerades are made and kept.
The netted costumes are crocheted from bush fibers, and the masks themselves are made by stretching barkcloth (felted by beating the bark of a particular tree) over a reed framework, sealing it with resin, then painting it, typically in black, red, and white.
Some of the masks are extremely large, but the materials keep them lightweight.
Because these masks are not carved, however, their facial features are not crisp, nor can they always attain complete symmetry.
The chihongo mask represents a Chokwe chief.
Although the performer's arms and chest are encased in a tight crocheted shirt, a cloth wrapper (a sign of towns and civilization) covers their lower limbs.
In contrast, many non-humanoid mukishi wear full raffia skirts at the waist.
Two prominent features of the chihongo mask are the large semi-circular projection from the jaw and the large curving headdress.
These can also be seen in wooden masks that depict the chief.
In wooden versions, the semi-circular section is cantilevered from the chin, jutting out horizontally.
Despite its rigidity, this form indicates the beard of an elder in both wooden and bark/resin examples.
The curving headpiece, here made from feathers, imitates the curving form of the crowns Chokwe chiefs once wore.
The masks's eyes typically are conceived of as coffee bean forms set into deep eye sockets that connote age.
Wooden masks were once worn by the chief himself or a designated male family member; along with a "female" masquerader (performed by a male), it went from village to village collecting taxes.
After the respective colonial governments banned the practice, since they wanted the taxes themselves, wooden masks switched functions and were used for entertainment dances.
Some mukanda camps employ a few wooden examples now, but resin/barkcloth versions are still more typical.
When training is complete, the initiates are reintroduced to their communities.
They enter in initial silence, escorted by the masqueraders, dressed in uniform style with hats and decorative patterns on their faces, arms, and torsos.
They sit in state, bowls in front of them to collect appreciation money from well-wishers.
They later dance and interact with the townspeople, accepted as those who have put childhood behind and are now oriented to adulthood and the world of men.
They will no longer sleep in their mothers' houses.
Representations of Fattening House Girls
While their rites were not usually accompanied by any arts other than body painting, jewelry, and hair designs—with occasional idiosyncratic drawings by the maidens themselves—they were the subject of numerous artists' work in a variety of contexts.
Ibibio girls carried dolls that represented initiates.
While their wide hips and thick thighs were emphasized, they do not actually represent corpulent women.
Rather, the emphasis is on their youth and beauty, as well as their perfect coiffure.
Ibibio puppets, used for adult entertainment, include the fattening house maiden as a stock character, often the subject of satyr-like pursuit in morality plays.
Even Ibibio cloths that form part of funerary shrines can feature the initiates—whether to represent the deceased's daughter, or just to beautify the textiles with her presence.
The Ejagham and Efut peoples made some of the most elaborate and beautiful representations of fattening house girls.
The former represented them in multiple forms: skin-covered helmet masks, often Janus or four-faced, that usually represented both males and females—the latter always with much fairer skin; skin-covered crests that could represent initiates at the peak of beauty; and elaborate carved and painted headpieces that women supported on their heads during female society performances, their faces exposed.
The crests were multi-media structures, the skin stretched over a wooden carving, and bone or cane depicting teeth that had been chipped, a fashion in the early 20th century.
Multiple men's societies used crests such as these, so without case histories, it is difficult to know exactly how a particular mask functioned, except to recognize the admiration initiates were held in, even in non-initiation contexts.
Although the knack of making skin-covered masks died out in the late 20th century, some men's societies still own old examples or make similarly carved and painted masks.
In general, crest masqueraders dance in male-female pairs.
Male Initiation Masquerades
These initiation masquerades (mukishi) include numerous stock characters that are described as ancestors.
Some have human traits (the chief, the beautiful maiden), while others represent protective and sometimes aggressive spirits whose human qualities are less evident.
For example, chikuza bears a tall, phallic-shaped projection and is compared to a particular kind of grasshopper of the same name with a similarly extended head.
It functions as the camp leader, protecting the camp and the boys, and it has further associations with successful hunting and fertility.
Miniatures of this mask often appear in divination baskets.
Before boys are initiated, they believe these figures are spirits; one of the secrets their initiation makes them privy to is the fact that men make and perform the masquerades, and they too will learn how to do so.
Before this and other layers of knowledge are revealed, however, the newly-arrived boys go through a painful introduction to manhood: circumcision.
Their first few weeks at the mukanda camp are quiet, for the boys are believed to be vulnerable to malevolent forces, as well as health risks.
They sleep in pens bound tightly by upright sticks so they cannot turn in their sleep and injure their healing penises.
Their ordeal bonds them to fellow initiates, some of whom had been complete strangers.
As the weeks go on, older men begin to train them in occupational tasks, as well as verbal abilities, sex education, psychological management techniques, and other skills they will need to be adult males and useful citizens.
In addition, they learn complex dances, a secret pictograph system, and other esoteric knowledge.
They are subject to absolute discipline.
They do not leave the camp, which is regarded as a living being whose body is its wooden retaining wall, with "eyes" made of shaped vegetation that project upwards, and "ribs" made from additional projections.
The circular enclosure's one entrance is closed off at night, and the boys are circumscribed by multiple rules, including a single place for urination.
The masqueraders go back and forth to the village to collect food for the boys from their mothers, an act that not only provides sustenance but reassures the women that their sons are alive and well.
Male Initiation in Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
The Chokwe are one of a number of peoples that once formed part of the Lunda Empire, and, like many of their neighbors, they practice male youth initiation that incorporates masquerade performances.
Male initiation requires that boys, whose orientation has been strictly towards their mothers and family members, be snatched from their familiar environs and taken to the bush, a fearful place they have always been warned against.
This is not usually an annual event; the initiation process (mukanda) depends on the local demographics, economic circumstances, and the decisions of elders.
When the catchment of boys of the appropriate age (about 8-15 years old) from neighboring villages is deemed adequate, male society members will prepare the initiation camp.
The removal of the initiates is not immediate; their families will recognize the advance signals, although the children will not.
Masquerades enter the villages and perform, then leave.
Some time later, certain masqueraders will return and carry the boys away to their symbolic "death".
The masquerades play key roles in snatching the boys from their homes to the camps, training them, fetching food from the initiates' mothers, and reintroduction of the boys to the community.
Among some groups, such as the DRC's Yaka, the initiates themselves wear masks upon their graduation.
They, too, often include references to sexuality or to proverbs.
At this stage, some ethnic groups such as the Nkanu created stall-like display elements near the camps; these are no longer made.
Their elaborate background graphics have symbolic meanings, acting as a mnemonic device for initiates that include references to virility and fertility.
Other motifs are leadership symbols or refer to daily life.