Head Thrust

Hmm, so today we spent a good chunk of the class period watching a video about masks. But not just any video about masks, it was some sort of special about the various African masks of Burkina Faso, Africa. It was quite interesting just to be able to experience another culture not through the typical words on a page, but actually get to see their rituals in action. Though masks seemed to vary from region to region, the entire ensemble of a performer stayed pretty much the same no matter what tribe we were watching. The masks shown were usually larger than life, reaching amazing lengths and heights that were all basically controlled by nothing more than the movement of the performer's head. It was jaw-dropping to hear that the entire mask was stabilized by the performer gripping some wire or string with his mouth while one hand held onto a stout stick attached to the bottom of the mask. Everything seemed to take a turn for the scary, however, when the narrator began explaining about the embodiment of spirits within the performers. In one performance, viewers could clearly see one of the performers suddenly becoming confused and belligerent as the so-called spirit entered his body. Creepy! Typical of the region, masks were often designed with geometric patters usually in the colors of black and white. Once again, variation amongst the different tribes is expected. The masks of the Mossi people (as shown above) were by far the most unique. Every time they would come onto the screen I couldn't help but feel as though it were the KKK in some sort of historical context or even worse, some sort of mystical munchkins!