Masks and masquerades have been a prominent topic of African art studies since the early twentieth century. Often, they were categorized within colonial frameworks of ethnic styles and identities. The distinction between masks, as the material objects (often wooden) that covered the face and sometimes the head of the dancer, and masquerades, as the gatherings where masks are danced, has been part of the colonial legacy and the hegemonic practice of collecting artworks for museums in the Global North. By separating the wooden headpiece from its costume and the performance that gave it meaning, the art world abstracted masks from masquerades in a way that made them suitable for museum displays.This publication aims at overcoming such curtailing by re-embedding masquerades in the contexts of their creation and by showing that they are made in the here and now—not in a timeless and remote other. The authors Hervé Youmbi, Jordan Fenton, Lisa Homann, and Amanda Maples look at four urban contexts where new masquerades emerged in recent years: Douala, Cameroon; Calabar, Nigeria; Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso; and Freetown, Sierra Leone. All contributions are based on thorough empirical research, and all relate to the exhibition project New African Masquerades. Besides organizing a traveling exhibition and commissioning masks from artists living in the four cities, the project also aimed at instigating new and ethically justifiable practices in collaboration with artists in Africa and museums in the Global North.The book is structured in five sections. Three are dedicated to in-depth studies of the masquerades and the artists who created them, always following the same order. In each section, the first example is from Cameroon, the second from Nigeria, the third from Burkina Faso, and the last from Sierra Leone. The structure is a bit confusing as the descriptions and analyses of the examples always extend over three sections. The aim is to foster comparisons between the case studies, but it also makes the text more difficult to read.The first section consists of the artists’ biographies. Hervé Youmbi is the only author who is also an artist. His essay is partly about his own work and life but also about his role as a member of the curatorial team. Jordan Fenton describes and analyzes the work of Chief Bassey Ekpenyong Nsa. He puts a special emphasis on the artist’s relationship to his father’s and grandfather’s work. Both had been artists in Calabar. Nsa’s entry into the field was facilitated when his father, seriously ill, gave him over to the ancestors: “If I die today, let this boy be the next” (p. 47). Lisa Homann introduces the workshop of David Sanou, who also learned to carve from his father. The economic basis of his workshop has not changed much since his father’s time: Sanou works exclusively on commission and enjoys an extraordinary reputation in the region, even though he has introduced new genres. The last example in this section is about Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah, who is also a member of masquerade and hunting societies. Like Sanou, he has introduced new genres, whose appearance is discussed by the wider public.The second section is about the Ethics and Methodology of Commissions. It addresses issues that are immediately relevant for all curators of exhibitions but also for galleries and collectors of African art. The descriptions are lively accounts of what the authors experienced when they commissioned artists to produce masks and masquerade costumes for the traveling exhibition. The interactions with the artists are all embedded in long-lasting exchanges, which include much more than mere economic transactions. Switching between role models is frequent. Artists may become companions and friends; scholars and curators may morph into patrons or customers. Familiarity with and respect for the other are central elements that feed into the New African Masquerades project. But there are also limits to such collaborations. Some of the interlocutors do not want to become visible while others want to be seen as prominent actors in the international artworld.The last of the three descriptive sections looks at the practice of masquerading. It adopts a more anthropological approach, looking at the social context of each masquerade, including the “societies” that organize and sustain it, and the interactions with local customers and to some extent the audience. The authors aim at showing how innovation is shaped by the agency of the actors and what is possible and acceptable and what is not. This process is conceived as “creative problem-solving” (p. 194).The final sections address the institutional partnerships that led to the commissions of the masks and their costumes. Section Four, Institutional Partnerships, with contributions by Aimé Kantoussan and Ishmeal Abu Kamara, addresses collaboration among artists, scholars, museums, and other exhibition venues more generally. Such partnerships are not only an important thread that runs through the entire book, but the authors also see them as a model for other, similar exhibition projects. Section Five, Potential Ramifications, with essays by Ndubuisi Ezeloumba and Kevin Dumouchelle, finally addresses wider consequences of the New African Masquerades project for methods of collecting and displaying African art, particularly when artworks are commissioned from artists living within the continent.Two more theoretical questions repeatedly surface when reading the book: first, the question of individual and/or collective creativity. The authors rightly claim that they want to overcome colonial figures of thought, particularly the “one tribe—one style” paradigm that has shaped African art studies for decades. However, replacing it exclusively by a focus on individual creativity does not solve the problem. The trope of the individual artist as a genius is as much a modern figure of thought as the older collective creativity of the “tribe.” Reading how the artists interact with others, such as patrons and clients, shows that many actors influence what the masquerades ultimately look like.The second question is about whether current transformations in masquerades differ from transformations that happened in the past. That masquerades have changed is beyond question. There are countless examples showing that neither the material nor the performative dimensions of masquerades were stable. They all have a history—even when it is unknown. Whether the current change should be called innovation or an incremental modification requires more theoretical work, as demonstrated by the works of David Sanou’s workshop in Bobo Dioulasso. Building on his father’s reputation, Sanou introduced a new genre but adhered to more conventional types in other cases. African art studies need to engage in broader comparisons to refine its conceptual tools of what is rightly called innovation and what is better captured by other terms. This book is an important contribution to a future debate. It provides concise descriptions and analyses that will shape this debate in the coming years.
Till Förster (Thu,) studied this question.