ARAS

West African religions generally agree that a single Supreme Deity created the world. But this Being is more or less distant, and so the cults are directed primarily to the lesser divine spirits who control natural phenomena like the weather and oversee cultural phenomena such as hunting and farming; these spirits are also concerned with the expected transitions and unexpected crises of individual life. And then there are the ancestors. Variously conceived, they tend to be extraordinary members of the African community who have died and gone to an Afterlife very closely related to the spirits. Ancestors too can help people in this world when called upon. But calling upon supernatural beings of whatever sort requires ritual action, conducted by priests and diviners -- and among the Boki of southeast Nigeria these rites are assisted by so-called "entertainment" associations. These are dance groups distinguished by sex, by social role, and by age; they perform at harvest celebrations, at puberty initiations, and especially today at funerals. For example, the Nkang are a male corporation of proven warriors; the Bekarum are a male association of hunters; while the Egbege are a female group who perform primarily at initiation rites for girls at puberty, when a woman give birth, etc.Each group owns a sacred mask-- the name of which is the name of the group (this is a totemic pattern wherein a sacred animal's name is that of its olan), And on certain occasions, their best dancer dresses appropriately, attaching noisemaking jingles and feathers, and then dons the mask to imitate a divinity from the other World. This apparently simple act in the ritual context of a believing community "re-presents" the god and makes that otherwise invisible and inaccessible divinity visible and immediate, able to hear the prayers and ready to intervene. As the dancer performs his or her mime, accompanied by musical instruments played by the other members of the group, an entire myth may be enacted evoking or calling forth for those assembled the very "beginning of time" -- when the first person was born, when a youth became an adult initially, when the first war was fought or the first human being died in some mythic story. In this way, the African masquerade gives meaning to what is happening today by connecting that event -- even a disturbing one -- to an age-old pattern in which the/gods themselves participated.Our mask tells us that at least some of these gods are "twofaced." Perhaps we can understand this by way of a different type of Cross River mask called a "helmet-mask." Hollowed out of a log, fitting over the head and resting upon the shoulders, it is also skin-covered and very frequently janiform. One face is male and is always colored dark brown or black, the other face is female and always of a pale or light brown color. Keith Nicklin, the ethnologist who has specialized in these mask types, notes with disappointment: "I was unable to discover any further explanation for this polarity of color on a sexual basis, other than that of black as being 'strong' or 'powerful' and white as 'weak'" (14). But neighboring tribes claimed actually not to know very much about their own tradi- tions and suggested Nioklin consult European books! If we consult Susan Blier, she tell us something else, that a major motif of the Cross River masquerades is that of "Beauty and the Beast" -- the principles being danced usually at different times, but making their impact as a pas de deux by the end of the ritual year. "Beauty" is imaged as a beautiful female mask on a figure of grace and usually slow movements; "Beast" is a male mask disfigured by leprosy or otherwise grotesque and is danced chaotically. Blier interprets them as competing social attitudes in the African group with an obvious didactic function favoring acceptable "feminine" attitudes. She also sees these danced figures as manifestations of the opposed supernatural realities that West Africans must deal with the helpful spirit or ancestor as well as the wandering ghost who causes trouble. Our own mask is polar, of course, and may depict this basic religious conflict by way of two heads facing in opposite directions; or perhaps the drama is shown by the "beauty" of the female faces and the "beastly" character of the horns.