The Spirited Things exhibit in the Fleming Museum is a lively display of  altars and artworks from various Caribbean religions. The exhibit is erupting with color, wonder, magic, history, and life. Each piece was curiously unfamiliar to me, some more than others. It was difficult to identify the piece I was most interested in–there were dangling tassels, glittery fabrics, and bright colors at every turn. I was drawn to the Gelede Mask because of it’s quiet, powerful appearance. It contrasted with other objects in the exhibit in that it was not decorated in a particularly eye-catching way–it was composed of primarily earth tones, and its display was very simple and uncomplicated. It was standing alone in a minimalistic glass càs̩e̩, located in a section of the museum dedicated to items related to gender–a topic I take a special interest in. The mask displays a woman’s face, decorated with a snake wrapped around her head, and a warthog and hunter on the back side. This essay will explore the ideas that the Gelede mask is 1) an an active spiritual altar and 2) demonstrates the importance of women in ritual practices, while also raising questions about gender dynamics involved in such rituals.

The Gelede mask was created in July of 1983 for use within the Gelede festival in Nigeria–a spectacular ritual that pays homage to the spiritual powers of women. The powers possessed by such women are believed to influence the flow of good and bad events in practitioners’ lives, and can be used for the benefit/destruction of society. These powers are comparable to those of gods, spirits, and ancient ancestors of Yoruba peoples. Women (usually elders) who use their spiritual powers for destructive purposes are deemed witches in Yoruba culture. The Gelede ritual’s aim is to influence the witches to use their powers for good versus evil. Interestingly, men perform this ritual wearing masks that depict the faces of beautiful women. The Gelede festival includes costumes, music, singing, and dancing, and usually take place in a marketplace–the woman’s domain in Nigeria.

In the Gelede festival, women are the subjects of worship. Men dress as women and wear masks that imitate their faces:

The mask itself, then, is not the only element in these portrayals: in performance the male dancer imitates the movements of a woman. The young girls and women watch these embodiments of the feminine ideal, understanding that the conduct of the masquerade is what men desire of them. As Manuel Jordan suggests, however, “Women are willing to accept the female model presented to them by men if they agree that it represents them appropriately (Cameron 1998, 72).

Professor of history, art, and visual culture at University of California Santa Cruz, Elisabeth L. Cameron provides insights into the complex gender dynamics/relations within the Gelede festival. There are bound to be some interesting dynamics surrounding a ritual in which men “pose” as women in order to worship the spiritual powers of women themselves. The mask itself depicts a hunter on the back of the woman’s head. The hunter’s placement brings about some questions related to gender relations both in Yoruba culture and in the Gelede festival–does the hunter on the back of the woman’s head convey the idea that men are ultimately in control of these traditions? Within the context of this mask and ritual, it could also mean that men are at the mercy of women, as they worship and pray that their ritual will influence the witches present in their lives to use their power for the benefit of society instead of destruction. The Gelede mask is a meaningful and beautiful piece of artwork, but also functions as an altar within Yoruba culture. The rituals that this mask is used in give it the sense of life that African art is known for.

Spiritual altars in Yoruba cultures provide ways to call spirits, ancestors, gods, or other symbolic beings to a specific place. Altars are often adorned with beautiful decorations and offerings to various orisha (gods). Most often, altars are long tables or displays full of spiritual objects and vessels, some containing the essence of different orisha. The Gelede mask on display does not appear to be an altar in the traditional sense of the word–however, the Gelede mask functions as an active spiritual altar among Yoruba people who practice Gelede tradition. It’s purpose is, indeed, to call upon spirits of witches and attempt to guide or influence what they use their powers for. This type of altar is different than a traditional table altar, in that it is actively used in rituals rather than observed and simply used as a place to leave offerings and extend worship to the different orisha.

The Gelede mask is art with a purpose–it was created with clear and dedicated craftsmanship (as you can see from its detailed paint), while also erupting with a sense of power, purpose, and most importantly, functionality: “African art was not even considered art with a capital “A” until relatively recent times mainly because art was defined entirely by modernist Western scholars for whom art was ‘for art’s sake’” (Abiodun 2014, 2). African art is created with the idea that it must have a source of life to hold any meaning. In Rowland Abiodun’s book, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art, he discusses the idea that artworks in Africa need to be ”activated” by some form of energy or life in order for the art to reach its full potential, and the doubt and skepticism that Westerns have shown towards this idea. Such is the case with the Gelede mask: until it is activated by using it in symbolic rituals, the mask does not hold nearly as much meaning as it would after it’s been infused with life and energy from the Gelede festival.

Yoruba scholar Babatunde Lawal states that “. . . the human image, a masterpiece by Obatala, embodies a special power (às̩e̩), inspiring and sustaining the creativity manifest in the visual, performing, and applied arts . . .” (Lawal 1996, 24). Lawal’s description of às̩e̩ connects well to Abiodun’s insights about the way Western scholars didn’t recognize African art as “true” art. In his book, Abiodun also discussed in depth the idea that African art must be activated by some energy in order to possess meaning to the people who observe, perform, and appreciate it–this life present in African art is called às̩e̩. This idea of às̩e̩ does not lend itself easily to straightforward description, translation, and analysis using Western terminologies present in the humanities (Abiodun 2014, 56). Ás̩e̩ is not something that we, in the West, use to classify and qualify objects and people–however, in Yoruba culture, às̩e̩ describes a desirable, divine life force that, if present in a person or object, gives a divine meaning and essence to said person/object. As the Gelede mask is used and therefore initiated in the Gelede festival, its às̩e̩ increàs̩e̩s as practitioners “breathe” life into the mask by using it in such a way that infuses it with energy from the spirits and witches it calls upon.

The Gelede mask, in my opinion, is one of the most interesting objects in the Spirited Things exhibit. It carries such complex connotations and ideas related to gender and the dynamics involved in the Gelede festival. The Gelede ritual delves into the way women are perceived by both themselves and the men imitating them in Yoruba culture. The mask also demonstrates the idea of às̩e̩–a concept not present in Western art or culture, but one that carries possibly the most divine meaning in Yoruba culture. The Gelede mask is a representation of the idea that art must be alive in some way in order to have meaning and reach its predetermined purpose/potential. African art is not created to simply observe and contemplate. I believe this is why Western scholars took/are taking such a long time to validate African art. The idea that art isn’t meant to be still or on display is unfamiliar to these scholars, and unfamiliarity, in many cases precedes dissent.

Bibliography

Abiodun, Rowland. “às̩e̩: Verbalizing and Visualizing Creative Power through Art.” Journal of Religion in Africa 24, no. 4 (November 1994): 309. doi:10.2307/1581339.

Abiodun. Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Cameron, Elisabeth L. “Men Portraying Women: Representations in African Masks.” African Arts 31, no. 2 (1998): 72-94. doi:10.2307/3337523.

Lawal, Babatunde. The Gẹ̀lẹ̀dé Spectacle : Art, Gender, and Social Harmony in an African Culture / Babatunde Lawal. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996.