Anything is possible under the heading of "The Symbolism of Masks in African Art".

Although the African continent may be politically adrift, its people demonstrate an inexhaustible imagination for breathing life into stories of tribal origin and stories of daily life by means of masks.

"Songs without singers, stories without storytellers, sculpture without sculptors,...", African art is anonymous, with no dates or signatures which may be surprising at first glance although the art history teaches us that artists did not always sign their work. The art object, most often masks, are not so much the representation or the image of a sacred being but the very being itself.

In her work, Afrique noire : masques, sculptures, bijoux [Black Africa: masks, sculpture and jewellery], Laure Meyer introduces masks in the following way:

"Imprisoned in a display case or pinned to a wall like an owl over a barn door, masks are lifeless things. They were originally linked inextricably to cloth or raffia costumes, music, rhythms, songs and sacrifices and the whole ritual that accompanied and animated them. Immobile and isolated ..., they have lost their meaning."

But what exactly is their meaning? What purpose do they serve? The world of masks is a fairly complex one, as prolific and impenetrable as an equatorial forest. We can, however, try to pick out some of the main threads.

Masks perpetuate and bring to life the history of which they are the reflection. History is often fixed in myths and masks introduce it into the reality of living people. In general, masks can be said to be the living embodiment of a spirit or supernatural creature who intervenes in the life of a village. Masks are at the crossroads of the sacred and the secular, the unknown made visible, regulators of people's existence. Mask-play enables oral laws to be transmitted from generation to generation. And because they are part of the everyday context, they have been used to advantage to exhibit many African secular objects.

These three small statues have never been apart from the time they were made. They were carved by the Touaregs of Mali from stone with a heavy concentration of metal. In view of their impressive weight, their owner described them as "stowaways" during their trans-Atlantic crossing.

Costumes (African tunics)

African masks are always worn together with a costume that covers the wearer from head to foot. The costume is not only intended to hide the masked person, but also to give him an impressive appearance. African warriors like to wrap themselves in inordinately large animal-skin clothing to strike fear into their enemies solely by their immense size. ".

"When the mask comes striding out of the bush and reaches the village square, his robe crackles and rustles all around him with countless palm fibres that sweep the ground with every step."

Secular Masks (everyday life)

The anonymity of masks are used in a thousand different ways. This one is used to decide arguments, render judgement and establish peace. When a mask is asked to render judgement in Africa, it does not mean than a man is judging another man but rather a spirit who is pronouncing judgement on an inferior being. Masks are thus supernatural beings who are impossible to gainsay. This means people must behave with all due care and diligence.

Entertainment Masks

Lastly, there are masks whose sole purpose is entertainment. These include likeable masks that know how to sing or dance well or who can recount the epic history of their country. They also include mischievous masks whose behaviour is crude or rowdy. Some people use these masks to present comic operas in which masks of animals or character masks like the "Thief", "War", or the "Village Idiot" appear. These masks often belong to an individual who teams up with friends who can accompany his dancing on drums or who joins forces with village elders or with a secret society.

Animal Masks

Very often, both the human and animal are combined in one mask. Hybrid creatures are created which give humans not only animal shapes but also the life-force of animals. Masks link dancers with all living things. .

For rituals in which farmers ask for rain, many masks intermix human and animal characters. The one that looks like a butterfly is a reminder that these insects appear in huge swarms just after the first rains.

"Magic" Masks

Some masks are so sacred that women, children or the uninitiated are not allowed to see them. The same thing is true for many Aboriginal masks here in Canada. Most of these masks are part of religious ceremonies and rituals surrounding the initiation of boys and funerals, the second grand rite of passage of major significance of African animists.

Activity with the Target GroupThis exhibition project was produced in cooperation with Mrs. Sophie's primary school class at the Villa Ste Marcelline, the College in the City. The theme of our exhibition fitted their academic program, "A Window on the World", extremely well. Masks were made by teams of three students each to illustrate themes such as magic, everyday life, animals or games, giving free rein to the creativity of these budding artists. We thought it would be simpler to assign a theme to each team but they preferred to go for modern, almost abstract, art to portray all these themes in a single mask.

This small statue represents the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus. It was made in a leprosarium in Liberia. Missionaries care for the lepers and teach them to make small statues so that they can acquire some self-sufficiency.

This is one of the most popular games in Africa. It is played with beans and people who cannot afford one in wood simply play with holes in the sand.

African art draws its inspiration almost exclusively from cults of dead ancestors whose masks represent spirits who speak to the present generation through them. At the same time, they personify tradition.

Those who wear masks are untouchable. They are sacred beings, even when they are joking with spectators or delighting them with their dances. No one would dare to tug at their robes or lift their hands against them when they advance to mete out punishment, "The bush behind the mask would begin to grow and would overrun the entire village in a day".

This is what a number of African tribes believe. These supernatural beings fulfilled a wide range of religious and secular duties through their existence. Each ethnic group had its own way of interpreting masks and the messages they transmitted. Masks always represented readily identifiable human faces or animal heads. There are no purely imaginary masks in Africa of the kind found in the Middle or Far East.

In contrast with more realistic and static statuary, the world of black African masks thus provides an escape into the supernatural, the unreal and the dynamic by giving shape to nebulous psychological forces that are as terrifying as they are mysterious. They provide a catalyst for age-old fears of nature. In the face of the horror of death, they may play a psychotherapeutic role in funeral rites And, in a more general sense, by removing mask dancers from the everyday concerns of world of the living, they lead him to ecstasy and temporarily plunge the entire audience into the atmosphere of a sacred world.