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27 GeledemaskWood,pigmentYoruba, Nigeria20th centuryHt.68cm, W.33cm, Dp.55cmEthno 1942, AF7.24 Gelede maskWood,pigmentYoruba,Nigeria20th centuryHt.47cm,W.35cm,Dp.45cmEthno 1942,AF7.6Found mainly in south-western Yorubaland,the Gelede mask performs in identical pairs during ceremonies intended to promote so-cial harmony and spiritual well-being in a given community.Each mask consists of an elaborately carved headdress and a costume of colourful fabrics.A typical headdress is in the form of a human head surmounted by motifs intended to entertain and,at the same time.address a specific concerm-be it so-cial,economic,political or spiritual,a concern that may also be expressed in songs.Gelede mask with snake and banana mo-tifs; This headdress seems to embody a prayer for a fruirful life.To the Yoruba,the banana plant signifies opulence and fecundity partly because it has a succulent stem and stalk and partly because it grows in clusters and its fruits are in bunches,It thrives best inthe swamps and marshes;hence the popular Yoruba saying ; Ogede ki gb’eti odo ko y’agan ( the banana plant in the swamp is never barren). Although it Normallydies shortly after producing fruits , the plant develops many suckers to survive the par-ent . That is why a prayer for worthy and responsible children is usually reinforced with the maxim;B’ogede ba ku,a fomo re ropo(the banana plant is always survived by offspring).The plant’s ephemeral life is often likened to premature deaths(abiku)among humanswhich makes its stems and suckers important ingredients in rituals aimed at pro-longing life.In this headdress the artist has taken great care to finish the stalk,emphasizing the ripe-ness of the nine bananas in such a way as to recall what the Yoruba consider sa the there cardinal blessings;prosperity,living to ripe old age and being survived by many children in whom the dead continue to live.Note the sprout at the end of the stalk.The snakes flanking the craved head com-plement and contrast with the vertical thrust of the banana stalk.First of all,Yoruba identify the snake with the dynamism and rejuve-nation abecause of its fast spiral or zig-zag movements and its ability to cast off and old skin to reveal a new one.It is implicated in increase rituals because of its ability to bear several offspring at one time.Yet many Yoruba fear the snake,large or small,given its poisonous and sometimes lethal bite.There is a popular notion that snakes seldom bite unless provoked.Thus most snake bites are interpreted as a manifestation of witchcraft or retriburive justice.Hencethe popular prayer;Olorun ma je a te oka n’iru mole (may we not step on the tail of a cobra). In the Egbado town of Idofoye ( Ayetoro), Gelede masks perform annually to honour Onidofoyi,the tutelary deity of snakes in the town and whose worship is aimed at attract-ing the good things of life and averting such dangers as deadly snakebites.This headdress is in the Egbado sub-style and could very well have been carved in the Ayetoro/Imaala area,although this is uncertain because the Gelede headdress commonly associated with the Onidofoyi consists of the two heads(one male,the other female)joined horizontally by two or more intertwined snakes.Gelede mask with snake and porcupine motifs;One of the most important functions of the Gelede mask is to use the visual and performing arts to amuse and, in the process, educate the public about the evils of withcraft and other anti-social behaviour.This head-dress shows two snakes attempting to swal-low a porcupine whose perforated body indi-cates that it was originally fitted with quills. What immediately captures the attention is the artist’s imaginative treatment of the sub-ject and the exceptional skill with which he balances mass and void.But the viewer soon begins to wonder;’Can the snakes really swal-low the porcupine along with the quills?’This theme,represented on other Gelede headdresses in the form of a snake attemping to swallow a tortoise,reflects the Yoruba be-lief in the limitations and relativity of power, both spiritual and temporal.It seems to have been inspired by a Yoruba myth on the origin of witchcraft which claims that,in the begin-ning,the Supreme Being (Olodumare)gave the first female called Iya Nla(the Great Moth-er)and her closest disciples known as aje a potent spiritual power(ase)with which to sus-tain life on Earth in their role as moth-ers.And,since the power can be used for posi-tive or negative purposes,the Supreme Be-ing,acting through Esu,the divine messen-ger,made these women recognize their limita-tions and they promised to honour certain axioms by which ordinary mortals could pro-tect themselves from the power.Two of the axioms are that ‘nobody eats a tortoise along with the shell’ and ‘nobody eats a porcupine along with the quills.’So it is that motifs signifying these axioms frequently appear on Gelede headdresses not only to plead with the powerful women in Yoruba culture to use their power for the benefit rather than the detriment of human-kind but also to warn the public at large of the nemesis that awaits foolhardiness or any abuse of power .For snakes that do succeed in swallowing a tortoise or porcupine often die eventually of injuries inflicted by the shell or quills.This theme also reveals the Yoruba be-lief that every creature ,however small or seemingly harmless,is endowed with certain powers with which to defend itself.It thus constitutes a warning against oppression and the use of force in settling a disagreement simlply because of the assumption that one could easily subdue a supposedly weaker op-ponent.Who knows what could happen?And why take chances?Hence the Gelede society personifies Iya Nla as the Mother of all.encou- raging all human beings to interact as the children of the same mother and so avoid as much as possible the use of force in resolving problems and disagreements.This headdress is in the Egbado sub-style,although its exact provenance cannot be identified. Babatunde LawalVirginaia Commomvealth UniversityB I B L I O G R A P H YDrewal,H.J.and Drewel,M,T.,1983,Gelede;Artand Female Power among the Yoruba,Bloomington; Indiana University PressLawal,B.,1996,The Gelede Spectade;Art,Gender, and Social Hamony in an African Culture,Seattle and London;University of Washington Press28 Elephant mask( mbap mteng)Cotton, glass, fibreBamileke, Grasslands. CameroonEarly 20th centuryHt. 150cm, W. 60cm. Dp. 20cmGiven by the Welcome Historical Medical MuseumEthno 1954. +23. 3446 Elephant mask ( mbap mteng)Cotton . cowrie shellsBamileke, Grasslands, CameroonEarly 20th centuryHt. 135cm, w 55cm. Dp 25cmGiven by the Wellcome Historical Medical MuseumEthno 1954. +23. 3445These magnificent elephant masks come from the south Grasslands area of western Came-roon inhabited by the Bamileke people. They were transferred to the British Mu-seum(Department of Ethnography) from the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum,having probably been bought through dealers in the ed by Bamileke secret societies in ritual dances and funerary ceremonies,such masks are caller mbap mteng(literally’animal with huge ears’).The main centres of the in-tensive use and the manufacture of this kind of mask are concentrated on the Bamileke plateau,the place of its historical ori-gin.However,these objects spread across the north and west of the Grasslands(Bamenda plateau,Ndop plain,east Cross River bor-der),through trade and migration.Their role in those areas is less important than in Bamile-keland where,for hundreds of years,there have been the best artists and their works.These masks,which are held in German and American museums,were mostly col-lected in some fifteen Bamileke kingdoms between 1900 and 1914.The Bamileke(numbering some three to four millions),a Bantu-speaking group, are well known for the vigour and splendour of their art, They are organized into a hundred kingdoms(gung),the biggest being Bang-joun(population 150,000).Every kingdom is headed by the king(fon or fo),who represents god and the ancestors.The fon is at the apex of Bamileke social organization,which is highly stratified.But in spite of his important reli-gious,political and supernatural powers,t he fon is controlled by notables(kam) organized in secret societies (mkem)which are the heart and soul of the kingdom both at the social and spiritual level.These associations used various masks during dances and ritual per-formances.The elephant mask is the main liturgical garment of a member of the secret society mkem during the royal and ritual dance of the elephant,the tso. This dance is associated with the symbolism of the royal power and the sovereignty of the kingdom,and also with funerarl foy rituals.Several secret societies which are associated with the sacred royal forest,fam(the main location for religious and ancestor worship in every Bamileke kingdom) employ elephant masks on the occasion of the tso dance.But only two of them,the ele-phant men,use these beaded hoods as their principal attribute in this context.First these is the kemdje society,an association of thepriests and guardians of custom and tradi-Array tion.Then there is the kwosi society(the Aka society in the west Bamileke plateau and of-ten with some influences coming from the rainforest),the followers of the king, originally a warriors’club, a group of the country’s rich,initiated men.The tso dance performed by the kwosi society is the most spectacular and prestigious of Bamileke ritual perfor-mances.The kwosi dancer wears a complex cos-tume of local blue and white batik cloth(ndop)and sometimes a leopard skin is attached to the back.The elephant mask can be surmounted by a beatutiful headdress made of feathers or represented by a beaded animal figure (leo-pard,crocodile,bird,buffalo).He appears to the accompaniment of sacred drums and gongs.He lopes in slow motion,like an ele-phant,round the marketaplace in the royal residence,carrying horse tails and poles de-monstrating the prestige and power of the kingdom and the notables.The elephant mask is associated with wealth,prosperity,royalty and occult pow-er.The elephant symbolizes pow-er,authority,pristige and leadership.It is be-lieved that the fon(king)and some prominent initiate notables may at will turn into ele-phants and leopards,thanks to ke(transcendental and dynamic pow-er,occult,and fetile force,magic).The cowrie shell is not only a symbolic allusion to wealth but of itself constitutes wealth and prosperi-ty.For hundreds of years it was used as the main medium of exchange in the Grasslands.It is believed to have occult or supermatural powers so it is used in divination,traditionalmedicine.Several cults (cults of twins, cult of fertility, ancestor worship)and rituals.Beaded elephant mask :This splendid example of an elephant mask is made of fibre and cotton cloth deco-rated with striking and multi- coloured beads creating remarkable geometric and symbolic motifs(triangles , lozenges , circles , etc.).Its visual appearance is defined by its three-dimensional from as a cloth sculpture and by its suiface pattern as bead-work .Hori-zontally, two huge circular , stif-fended ears are sewn on each side of the he-misphercil head. The face shows twos circular eyes .The nose and the mouth are stylized and highlighted with geometric shapes .Vertically, the hood extends through a lone flap hanging down behind and in front to represent an elephant trunk. The frieze and geometric de-signs were chosen by the artist with an eye to establishing harmony and balance between the aesthetic and symbolic significance . The basis of the repertoire of forms is constituted by the isosceles triangles (here the sign of the leopard ) and its variants . The leopard and the elephant are not only the principal sym-bols of leadership , royal power and prestige, but also play a fundamental role in the rites involving ke (transcendental and dynamic power ,occult and fertile force , magic ). Be-sides this ,beads symbolize wealth , prosperity and distinction .Cowrie shell elephant mask:This second elephant mask ,a good example of three-dimcnsional cloth sculpture ,is deco-rated with cowrie shells .Masks of this kind ,fully covered with plain cowrie shells, can befound in the field but are not numerous in the Grasslands . Another elephant mask very sim-ilar to this piece was photographed by Pastor Christol (a French missionary )in one of the northern kingdoms of the Bamileke plareau in 1925. The masks of the kungang , a Bamileke religious secret society of medicine men, show some similarities with these co-wrie-covered elephant masks.This piece is notable in that the white cowrie –shell design spreads across the whole of the background and depicts the features of a human face (nose, circular eyes, mouth),a long and stylized trunk that drapes from the head to the ground ,and two large hinged animal ears that flap during performances . The artistic tradition of covering different ob-jects (sculptures, clothing and gourds etc.) with cowries (or heads )has a long history in Bamilekeland . Because cowries were highly valued in Bamileke society , the mask was called ‘thing of money’ and was a good exam-ple of the ostentatious display of wealth . Bammileke society is highly stratified and hierarchical so it is not surprising that the form and decoration of the mask indicated the owner’s staus .This object belonged to a rich member of the high grade of an impor-tant secret society .。