MASKS OF BLACK AFRICA -- THEIR USES

The Westerner considers the mask as a work of art. The African considers the mask as a necessary ritual instrument or cult object, a product of his particular culture.

Two approaches of the Westerner could even be taken towards the mask as a work of art. The first approach can be referred to as phenomenological in that the westerner considers any work of art essentially as part of reality. The onlooker has to contemplate the object as is without knowing anything about it. He has to expose himself to it, surrender all expectations and presuppositions, let the work seize him, and establish a communion with it. The onlooker, as a result of previous experiences with a larger domain of art of various civilizations and periods, he will sense whether the forms and their coordination are authentic and from the hands of a talented artist. As the contemplation of a work of art ultimately must result in a “ lived-through experience,” this re-feeling is the index, though subjective, of the quality of the work of art.

The second approach is taken when the suspension of presupposition is not possible. Here again there are two possible channels of development. One is to accumulate knowledge which remains arrested on an intellectual level. The second channel is to acquire information about the use of these masks which may help indirectly to enlarge, deepen, and enrich one's emotional response. This occurs when, through self-identification, information arouses a deeper interest in an object, or when an accurate description of an object gives one a new point of view and enables one to see better what is visually present. Man with his inherently limited perception requires concentration and sustained attention. But if he properly integrates information, it may help to heighten his sensitivity, and he may discover something that otherwise would escape his attention. The word integration is the key, but this is possible only if the observer has the proper disposition to transform obseration into emotional response.

For the African, the mask is an integral part of his own culture. The meaning the African has attributed to the traditional use of masks, which had a mythico-religious logic of their own, is to the scientific mind an admissible rationalization, as it has solved the African's major human and social problems.

To understand the origin and fundamental significance of specific African masks, and to find meaning for the western mind, it will be useful for us to abstract the masks from the African tradition and consider the following:

The Universal use of masks

Independent of any specific use, the mask, or rather the mask person, has his own significance. One's reaction to another person is primarily based upon what one perceives on an immediate, intuitive level from the slightest change in the expression of his face. The old saying that “the eyes are the mirror of the soul” is very true, as the gaze of the eyes, direct, veiled, shifting, or avoiding eye-to-eye contact, as well as the person's movements and the posture of his body in tension or relaxation, express his individuality and identity. They are all, each alone and in combination, expressions of the unconscious mind, and they reveal something of one's motivations and feelings. For that matter, one's speech also has its own significance, for the manner in which a person speaks has a more profound, though unconscious, impact upon us than what he says. It is how someone behaves which constitutes the essence of our reaction. By extension, how a carving is made is the key to its quality.

When a man wears a mask, his face is hidden. His identity is concealed, and the expression of the mask projects his new identity. This change is more impressive and dramatic when the features of the mask are unnatural, grotesque, or frightening, or are abstracted from a human or animal figure. Unable to establish the human identity of the masked man, the viewer is disoriented. The man wearing a mask of exaggerated expression appears strange, unpredictable, sometimes lurking. Because this is beyond the familiar, one is mystified and fascinated, for, in fact, the masked man can deceive the outsider.

In addition to the characteristics of any masked person, in Africa the rhythmical movements of the masked dancer augmented the effectiveness of his strange costume.

Furthermore, when the disguised dancer appeared in a religious ritual, the mask entered a new dimension of significance, as it fulfilled the role prescribed by tradition, making a great effect upon the public. But the mask and the costume also affected the wearer. As he underwent psychological changes, he adapted his movements to the character he was impersonating.

Most African masks are usually bold because, first of all, they represented mythological, legendary, nonhuman beings, often animals associated with the founders of the tribe. To give expression to these spirit-beings, according to oral tradition, the carver used his imaginative powers to create masks often fantastic in appearance. This boldness, furthermore, was necessary to compensate for the distance of the masked dancer from his audience, who actively participated in the communal festivities.

By contrast, the masks and statues used in more intimate, private rituals (such as ancestor and magic cults ) often have a more serene expression. The statues in strong, immobile, phallic form often contain highly sophisticated, refined details.

Myth, ritual and dance

We can understand the significance of the mask in the African's social life only if we consider the structure of the social system.

Man faces overwhelming natural forces which he cannot understand, and his existence is consequently an enigma. Intuitively man has an understanding , a kind of inner knowledge, as to his place in the order of things. This all-embracing prereflective experience produces an awe-struck, hence religious, attitude toward the external world. The African acted this out in rituals, the framework wherein the mask acquired its vital role.

Myths are the poetic verbalizations of preconscious experiences. They provide the background for the sacredness of the ritual, hence that of the mask. Essentially the myth conditioned the masked dancer and his audience as to what to expect. Knowing the identity of each mask and its relationship to the sacred past, the audience also knew its purpose. As the myths are the bases for the rituals, the masks acquire “ritual value” . The mask played a vital, visually suggestive role in the ritual along with music and audience participation.

Rituals were spontaneous acts. They originated in man's need for the spiritual, his need to enter a higher level of consciousness, a state within the domain of poetic imagination. To make his rituals more effective, man used the same poetic means he used to create myths. Only later did the need for conceptualisation arise to produce a world view. Myths are not only symptoms of the unconscious but also controlled and intended statements of certain spiritual principles which remain constant throughout the source of human history as the form and nervous structure of the human psyche itself.

Myths are recitals of sacred traditions bringing unrelated events into relationship, as if created by invisible, but nevertheless existing powers. Myths aim to enable man to orient himself, to deal with the enigmatic, seemingly insoluble problems of human existence, including the mysteries of his birth and afterlife.

One of the most profound roles of myth is that it declares events, facts, and causes to be sacred to set them apart from the profane. This sacramental attribute introduces a numinous reality into man's existence.

African myths contained cosmogonic explanations, different according to each tribal tradition. By introducing genii or spirits, myths also taught the origin of the tribe, the genealogy of its founding ancestors and heroes, the history of their migration, the institution of initiatory ceremonies, the techniques of agriculture and crafts, food taboos and so forth.

The mythological hero who represented special valour because of his exceptional services to the tribe in the legendary past was regarded as a model, the embodiment of the best of human potentiality. As descendants of this hero, the living through identification with him derived a special tribal pride which was the basis for their ethnocentrism.

The sacred myths aimed to preserve the wisdom of precedents based on ancestral laws. They became the cultural canons limiting life and determining what was unalterable, excluding the unpredictable, giving security and prosperity to the collective life of the community by stressing obedience to the law, the code, and the practical guidelines for behaviour and closer fraternal relationships between members of smaller groups. The most significant result of a mythologically framed constitution asserting unalterable truth, a system of supreme ethical values and norms, was that it promulgated spiritual and social coherence within the community. Myths were solidifying, stabilizing agents and, last but not least, they resolved the individual's existential dilemma.

As myths connected the ancestral past with cosmogonic events, the larger scope of mythological teaching consisted of reconciling the individual consciousness with the universal will through analogies and comparisons. The African participating in a ritual sensed this unity more acutely when he witnessed the acting out by masked dancers of the myth about his tribes past. He was not an observer; he became engulfed and absorbed. He was able to identify himself with that which was presented to him as permanent and sacred reality. Because of this identification he was able to step to step out of his ordinary, ego-centered daily life. His individual life was depersonalised, elevated. He was able to enter into the realm of the consecrated, into a sublime, spiritual, otherworldly existence. This means that the dancers and their participating audience interacting with each other were able to be part of a higher order of things in the world of cosmic, natural order. Such participation affected their very being during the ceremonies, and the experience provided a guideline or a rule of conduct for their entire life.

The African was conditioned to celebrate the order in nature by cyclical, seasonal ceremonies. These, connected with the powers of the ancestral spirits, convinced him that what he witnessed had happened before he was born and would happen after his death. To him the ritual represented a phenomenon of eternal recurrence. By extension, he became conscious of the eternity of human existence, and enjoyed a sense of duration and continuum supported by his faith that his soul would return after his death in a new form and would also be venerated in accordance with the practices of the ancestor cult.

The unknown powers determining the life of the individual and the destiny of the community, the transpersonal figures (god, genii), came down to earth through the mask, often in animal forms. The myths makers expressed their unbounded imagination by creating supernatural things and beings through the magic of poetry. This accounted for the exuberant and fantastic appearance of some of the masks which were closely connected with the myths.

A mask dancer incarnated a spirit whose identity was recognizable by the audience familiar with the oral mythical tradition. The dancer appeared mysterious, first, because his identity was hidden, and second, because he brought down to the group invisible but powerful spirits which influenced their lives. As insecurity is the primary characteristic of the human condition, by means of masked rituals the Africans believed they changed the chance element into a reassuring certainty.