Masquerades in African Society: Gender, Power and Identity (Western Africa Series)

Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
	Enter the mask
	The study of masking
	Structure of the book
The Mask Crescent: Distribution of  Masks and Masking in Africa
1. Mask Distribution and Theory
	Masking zones
	Theoretical approach
	Parameters of masking
	Profiles of masking societies
	The zebu exclusion
	Methodology
2. What is a Mask?
	Explaining masks: The Magritte effect
	A basic mask typology
	Bush, spirits, ancestors, and other people
	Masks and power
	Tradition, prototype, and invention
	Conclusion
3. Masks and Masculinity: Initiation
	Chewing the mask
	Separation from the mother
	Liminal revelation
	Mask and circumcision
	Symbols of gender: Death and food
	Communitas and age
	Masks and masculinities
	Conclusion
4. Secrecy and Power
	Writing on the mask
	Dimensions of secrecy
	Initiation societies and the empty secret
	The sound of secrecy
	Ethics, society, and secrecy
	Conclusion
5. Death and its Masks
	Singing at the mask
	Burial and the farewells
	Burial by masks
	The funeral as initiation
	The individual and society at funerals
	Masks and the second funeral
	Celebrating life
	Conclusion
6. Women: Pivot of the Masks
	The first mask
	Gender domains
	Celebrating femininity
	Women dancing with masks
	The mask of the woman is her body
	Conclusion
7. Masks and Politics
	Masks for father
	Masks and the history of the patriline
	Feasting the sultan
	The mask as king
	Initiation, masks, and regicide
	Masquerades and modern politics
	Conclusion: The Akan Gap
8. Masks and the Order of Things
	Masks in the field
	Masks and the adjudication of law
	The discourse on witchcraft
	Masks versus ‘witches’
	‘Uncovering witchcraft’: A mask performance abroad
	‘War masks’
	Conclusion
9. Masks and Modernity
	Playful sharks in the Delta
	Theatre at Cross River
	The king of masks, the elephant of masks
	Masks for new audiences
	Masks as icons of ethnic identity
	Heritage, icon, and commodity
	Conclusion
10. Memories of Power, Power of Memories
	Arrest that mask!
	Satire, the weapon of the weak
	Masquerades and the slaving state
	From Africa to the African diaspora
	Conclusion
11. Conclusion
	The cultural niche for masquerades
	A future for masks?
Bibliography
Sources for Ethnographic Cases
Picture Credits
Index