There are two aspects about masks; one is cult and the other is culture.
March 14, 2016 5:16 PM Subscribe
FESTIMA a festival of African masks recently held in Dédougou, Burkina Faso.
Some pbase galleries and a night mask video from a few years back.
Wow, these are absolutely stunning. Thanks for posting!
posted by Itaxpica at 10:28 PM on March 14, 2016
posted by Itaxpica at 10:28 PM on March 14, 2016
There are three major regional cultural festivals held in Burkina. I've been to the West African film festival (FESPACO) and the international arts and crafts salon (SIAO) a couple times each, but perhaps my biggest regret from my five years of living there is that I never made it to FESTIMA despite semi regular travel to Dedougou (though my fiancée went so at least I've seen the DVD they produced one year).
However.
My first two years I was there as a Peace Corps volunteer, and in the way of such folks I was living in a village fairly far from any city. Despite that, our particular village was the center of a thriving mask tradition. Each year, there was a festival there with a hundred or more masks. It was not attended by tourists. And it was not always safe.
The tradition of mask dances in that area was that one or several masks would dance, surrounded by a crowd who would slowly close in, yelling and sometimes taunting them until they went on the attack, at which point the crowd would run and disperse... Then wash, rinse, repeat. Some masks participated bare handed. Some carried thin branches (I got hit by one of these, because when I say the masks went on the attack, I don't mean in a play-acting way). Some carried knotted ropes, some heavy sticks - and some knives.
There are all sorts of rumors about how the folks in the masks keep their energy (beyond being inspired by the spirit of the mask I mean), and why they sometimes get so angry - some say they do drugs, some that they put ground glass in their shoes so that they have to keep dancing to adjust. All I know for sure is that the night of that festival, I always made sure to arrive and leave early, before things got serious. And that the morning after that festival, the local health clinic always had a full roster.
posted by solotoro at 5:05 AM on March 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
However.
My first two years I was there as a Peace Corps volunteer, and in the way of such folks I was living in a village fairly far from any city. Despite that, our particular village was the center of a thriving mask tradition. Each year, there was a festival there with a hundred or more masks. It was not attended by tourists. And it was not always safe.
The tradition of mask dances in that area was that one or several masks would dance, surrounded by a crowd who would slowly close in, yelling and sometimes taunting them until they went on the attack, at which point the crowd would run and disperse... Then wash, rinse, repeat. Some masks participated bare handed. Some carried thin branches (I got hit by one of these, because when I say the masks went on the attack, I don't mean in a play-acting way). Some carried knotted ropes, some heavy sticks - and some knives.
There are all sorts of rumors about how the folks in the masks keep their energy (beyond being inspired by the spirit of the mask I mean), and why they sometimes get so angry - some say they do drugs, some that they put ground glass in their shoes so that they have to keep dancing to adjust. All I know for sure is that the night of that festival, I always made sure to arrive and leave early, before things got serious. And that the morning after that festival, the local health clinic always had a full roster.
posted by solotoro at 5:05 AM on March 15, 2016 [3 favorites]
Wow - it's a really different type of festival where I work! The masks usually come out during funerals, or sometimes other celebrations. The masques danseurs even have competitions occasionally, to determine the best dancer. There are a lot of religious and spiritual components that I and other women can't participate in, but the atmosphere is much more like a party. There are some "scary" masks, masques chasseurs, who chase children and will get in people's faces and be noisy, but they aren't aggressive. Nobody knows who is possessed by masks, at least officially, and I got scolded for asking too many questions, but I never got the impression that there was any sort of malevolence, although the evangelicals in the village I lived in tried to keep people from going because they said the mask spirits were from the devil. Other than them, the whole village comes out and dresses up to watch; women are all given a particular piece of whatever animal was butchered that day to feed everyone, and it's an opportunity for family spread out across the region to come spend some time together.
My impression is that things have changed significantly in the way mask celebrations take place over the past 30 years or so, though. I know some of the vieux get upset with the younger men for not being properly respectful, and women weren't allowed to watch any of the masks unless they were elderly, because it would make them infertile. There are still masks that don't come out of the sacred forest because women aren't allowed to see them, and when someone who participated in the masks dies, they are buried at 1 AM without any women present, not even family members.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:13 AM on March 15, 2016 [4 favorites]
My impression is that things have changed significantly in the way mask celebrations take place over the past 30 years or so, though. I know some of the vieux get upset with the younger men for not being properly respectful, and women weren't allowed to watch any of the masks unless they were elderly, because it would make them infertile. There are still masks that don't come out of the sacred forest because women aren't allowed to see them, and when someone who participated in the masks dies, they are buried at 1 AM without any women present, not even family members.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:13 AM on March 15, 2016 [4 favorites]
Those photos are glorious. African masks have always amazed me when I saw them in museums, and I always thought they would be even more amazing in real life (so to speak); I envy those of you who have seen them in action. Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 8:36 AM on March 15, 2016
posted by languagehat at 8:36 AM on March 15, 2016
solotoro and ChuraChura thanks for your first hand input.
solotoro maybe you are in a more out of the way area than ChuraChura.
It is interesting to me that you say that the masks would attack the crowd as things progressed.
In parts of the Caribbean at carnival some Mas was banned by authorities as being too violent - this was especially related to Jab-Jab and stickmen who were still fighting until fairly recently in outlying communities such as the hill villages of Carriacou. Their drug of choice was / is Rum, in particular Jack Iron The origins of Mas were originally African. The Burkina drugs of choice might well be a little more hallucinogenic. I hope the evangelists haven´t managed to completely screw up these ruituals.
They should be thrown out of every where they interfere.
The night masks particularily interest me. Here is a whole hour of them
ChuraChura are any of your videos online?
posted by adamvasco at 9:36 AM on March 15, 2016
solotoro maybe you are in a more out of the way area than ChuraChura.
It is interesting to me that you say that the masks would attack the crowd as things progressed.
In parts of the Caribbean at carnival some Mas was banned by authorities as being too violent - this was especially related to Jab-Jab and stickmen who were still fighting until fairly recently in outlying communities such as the hill villages of Carriacou. Their drug of choice was / is Rum, in particular Jack Iron The origins of Mas were originally African. The Burkina drugs of choice might well be a little more hallucinogenic. I hope the evangelists haven´t managed to completely screw up these ruituals.
They should be thrown out of every where they interfere.
The night masks particularily interest me. Here is a whole hour of them
ChuraChura are any of your videos online?
posted by adamvasco at 9:36 AM on March 15, 2016
I suspect the difference is more about culture than related to remoteness. Adamvasco, other than the two videos I linked to on facebook in my first comment, I haven't put up any other videos.
posted by ChuraChura at 10:45 AM on March 15, 2016
posted by ChuraChura at 10:45 AM on March 15, 2016
For many years I was a street vendor, selling West African masks, sculptures and textiles here in New York City. So this post is really interesting and exciting for me. Thanks for your post, adamvasco.
posted by nickyskye at 5:22 PM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by nickyskye at 5:22 PM on March 15, 2016 [1 favorite]
We did have them come out at other times, funerals* and other festive occasions - in fact, there was another, much smaller festival held in our provincial capital where the masks partied with everyone and there was no hitting**. Interestingly, in those cases there was always a handler, someone whose job was to keep them tame-ish, either by speaking quietly to them in a way no one else could hear, or sometimes by playing a drum or flute. The masks communicated back by dancing and squeaking. And the big festival in my village was indeed festive - there was just always that bit of menace along with the fun. And I think similar to ChuraChura's experience, there were things happening out away from the village that only the men were allowed to participate in***. I never tried to go; not that I think they would necessarily not have allowed me, but as welcome as I certainly was by a large portion of my community, I never quite felt that I was so integrated that I could attend that sort of thing without being an intruder, so I stuck to going where I had been actively invited - which was plenty to keep me busy!
Sometimes masks would just walk through our village. Some were treated with respect, some cordially ignored, and some actively avoided. Once one came to my house, and I was a little scared until its handler explained that they were going door to door asking for donations for a party that was coming up. I gave them the equivalent of a couple bucks, and the mask squeaked at me and danced and then they went on their way. Another time, one walked by the school just as a class period was ending, and my 7th grade students refused to leave the classroom until it was long out of sight.
In conclusion, masks are a land of contrasts.
*Not the funerals that happened right when people died, those weren't festive at all. The ones held in the early part of the year, when the lives of those who had lived full lives were celebrated. When possible, families would hold those the first season after the loved one had passed, but sometimes it would take them a year or two to save up enough money for a proper party.
**One of my very first blog posts as a volunteer has a picture of a mask with a caption pointing out how remarkable it is that it is not trying to hit me at that moment. Sadly, the pictures from that post (which I won't be sharing here as I don't want to create quite so explicit a link to my real name), greatly reduced in quality given my limited connectivity back then, are the only ones I have from my region - I lost 18 months of pictures in a robbery later during my service, and I'd never backed them up.
***There's also a fantastic dance that only the ladies are allowed to do, though they do it where everyone can see. They throw themselves at each other butt-first, and bounce off of each other in mid air. I always wanted to jump in, it looked so fun, but I was told in no uncertain terms that men do not dance like that.
posted by solotoro at 7:49 PM on March 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
Sometimes masks would just walk through our village. Some were treated with respect, some cordially ignored, and some actively avoided. Once one came to my house, and I was a little scared until its handler explained that they were going door to door asking for donations for a party that was coming up. I gave them the equivalent of a couple bucks, and the mask squeaked at me and danced and then they went on their way. Another time, one walked by the school just as a class period was ending, and my 7th grade students refused to leave the classroom until it was long out of sight.
In conclusion, masks are a land of contrasts.
*Not the funerals that happened right when people died, those weren't festive at all. The ones held in the early part of the year, when the lives of those who had lived full lives were celebrated. When possible, families would hold those the first season after the loved one had passed, but sometimes it would take them a year or two to save up enough money for a proper party.
**One of my very first blog posts as a volunteer has a picture of a mask with a caption pointing out how remarkable it is that it is not trying to hit me at that moment. Sadly, the pictures from that post (which I won't be sharing here as I don't want to create quite so explicit a link to my real name), greatly reduced in quality given my limited connectivity back then, are the only ones I have from my region - I lost 18 months of pictures in a robbery later during my service, and I'd never backed them up.
***There's also a fantastic dance that only the ladies are allowed to do, though they do it where everyone can see. They throw themselves at each other butt-first, and bounce off of each other in mid air. I always wanted to jump in, it looked so fun, but I was told in no uncertain terms that men do not dance like that.
posted by solotoro at 7:49 PM on March 16, 2016 [3 favorites]
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I've watched a bunch of my videos from the funerals and fetes I went to this summer over the past day or two; my heart hurts for Cote d'Ivoire, and this is one of the really beautiful parts of the culture than brings people together across ethnic and religious boundaries.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:50 PM on March 14, 2016 [4 favorites]