51. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS MASQUERADE SOCIETIES IN GHANA "I heard the drums coming down the street and then the fifes and the pipes and they came around the corner, all dancing." 1 It is likely that the idea of masquerading in Ghana was borrowed from European traders resident on the 'coast' in the 18th and 19th Cent- uries. Fever, isolation, heat and gold made them tend to drink rather often and to reve| at the least excuse. Their Christmas parties for example made such a deep impression on the natives that that feast was consequently named"Buronya" man has it good1 (literally 'The white man has got1). Today that term Is used not only by the Fantes but all Akans as well as some non-Afcan tribes. In Fante the word means 'The white At some of these "White-man's" parties, masks were worn. As mask wearing was unknown to the natives the effect was tre- mendous. An old Fante informant of Kumasi gave me a different account of the origin of masquerading in this country. He says it was brought to Ghana by 'Saa Loofo1 (Sierra Leonians). Sierra Leone in the middle of the 19th Century was made up of only a few tiny settlements of emancipated slaves and neighbouring "hostile" natives. But there is evidence that from 1822 Sir Charles M'Carthy as Governor of the Gold Coast and Sierra Leone, brought over companies of West Indian troops then stationed in Sierra Leone into this country to help check Ashanti invasions of the South. This arrangement continued till the sack of Kumasi in 1874 by Sir Garnet Wolseley. 1. Ernest Hemingway: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro and other stories". Penguin, p.119 2. Walton Claridge: A history of the Gold Coast and Ashanti. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS 52. As people from the Carribean, it is likely that these soldiers had some idea of carnivals. .Indeed it is possible that they held carni- vals of some sort while here. There was the regimental band to provide the music. They could make all the costumes they needed from material bought from the forts. Gin was cheap and plentiful. Everything points in the direction of the West Indian troops as In any case the fact re- the likeliest, referred to as the "Saa Loofo". mains that masquerading as it is today was not known or practised in this country at least in Southern Ghana in pre-colonial times. It must be said though that for many tribes in our neighbouring countries of the Ivory Coast and Niger, masks and masquerading formed an important aspect of their culture. Most Ghanaian cities, towns and even some villages, have masquerade societies, particularly places with large colonies of Fantes. Kumasi has three such societies - Red Cross, Prince of Wales and Cosmos. Smaller groups appear from time to time but are short lived. Winneba and Saltpond are said to have some very active societies. Their members include some prominent persons besides the usual Young men and boys. Masquerade Societies in Ghana are exclusively men's Societies. It is their custom to hold turn-outs at the principal feasts of the Christian year - Christmas and Easter. Although I have known the Kumasi based societies to hold up to five turn-outs besides the Christmas and Easter outings. The turn-out is a procession through the streets of a city, town or village by members masquerade societies. They wear dresses whichi correspond with their masks* A band, often a loud brass orchestra brings up the rear. Sometimes the music is provided by a band of fifes and drums. Some are content with just percussion. One popular tune of the masqueraders is "Abamo" which runs thus: 53. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS The masqueraders dance energetically with vented and rythmic move- ment to the music of the bands. Marsy speciators especially children can't hefp joining in the dance; As me ancsquepsders dance, the pro- cession moves slowly on through the sheets. They stop at houses and sometimes enter compounds. They continue thsh performance in these compounds and are given presents almcsj always in cash. One member collects the money in a sealed woodfen box which has a slot at the top through which coins end paper money ate droppsd. MASKS (Character) For outings, members dress up as one of fhe following thres kinds of characters:- (1) (2) (3) imitation or caricature of particular people animals nondescript human faces. or An example of caricature was the dcxibfe-ltfe-size likeness of Neville Chamberlain (the pre-war Prime Minister of Britain) towering head and shoulders over the procession with a top hat and a high collar-(fig. 1). An example of the animal masks which I once sow was a huge cockerell (fig.2) as big as a small car, who used to career up and down the pro- cession. He would sway dangerously c$ he went, ssemingly falling over. There was also a frightful gorilla. His nsesk was the type which covers the entire head of the wearer. To match the majk, he wore coarse woollen overalls complete with stuffed taiL The effect was fantastic - I later discovered that rsal gorillas did not have tails at all.1 That tail, however, added something to tte appearance of the evil-looking bogey (fig.3),. The nondescript end expressionless human-face masks form a maforiiy of masks ct the turn-out. The faces are usually painted pink. Pale faces therefore dominate the procession. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS 54. The are occasional attempts by members.to be creative, A horse-less cowboy, a Roman Soldier in armour-plate of painted card- board or a fetish priest. A comical figure was that of the conservancy boy with his bucket atop his head and his short broom in his hand (fig.4). High above the whole turn-out often, is the stilt-walker •Sakrabudu1. He walks or rather dances on stilts 12 feet to 24 feet high. His mask is atways'a plain pale-face one. (fig.5) MASKS(Technical) Masquerade Societies use two types of masks, the cast (papier mache) type and the wire net type. The Cast Type: Usually imported, it is cast from a mould using pulp paper and then painted in the appropriate colours. Some are made to cover the head completely and others just the face. In some cases it covers nearly the whole body as for example the cockerel which covers up to the wearer's knees. I was told in Kumasi that a young man of Obuasi locally pro- duced some good xast masks in the forties. Although he took the trouble to tour places where he was likely to get customers, patronage was not encouraging. He soon went out of business. The Wire-Netting Type 1 1 They are made from theT? " - ITT" mesh used domestically to prevent insects from entering houses. Cut to size, the netting is then pressed and moulded with the fingers into shape: eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, chin and forehead. The mask is then edged with cloth or a piece of soft metal sheeting. It is given as usual a coat of pink paint all over. The eyes are picked out in white for the balls and black ') Kan In mask Man in mask Fig. 1 ^ 9I fc*f ' * * * Fig. b r Fie. 6 Fig- 7 Fig. 8 (after t.L.R. Ueyerowitz) Fie- 9 55. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS for the pupils, Black lines define the eye-lids and red is used for the lips,. Moustaches usually the 'Errol Flynn type1 is painted on the upper l i p. On the whole, the finish gives these masks an appearance of ef- feminate pale-fecsdness even where it is meant to portray a male face with moustache or not, (fig.6) COSTUME «.-*££ Some masks call for particular types of costume. The gorilla wore an overall of dark brown -woollen materiql, with taU.The cockerel mentioned above, also wore a pair of tightfitting trousers with scale- markings painted on them. His legs sticking out of the huge mask looked like the legs of a giant bird.1 Most masqueraders wear gay fancy- print cotton shirts and trousers. The shirts have frills of calico along ths sleeves, around the chest and back, and along the collars. Some of these collars are really capes. The trousers too have frills along the legs. The complete suit except for texture and prints has the appearance-, of Red Indian costume without headgear, (fig.7) ACCESSORIES Most masqueraders carry horse tail whisks (Bodua) in addition to a stick or cane for the purpose of keeping children outside the pro- cession. Each member wears a badge. Some have feathers stuck ?n their headgear «ind wear castanets which they ' c l i n k ' in time with the music LOCAL INFLUENCES Naturally from the days of the "revelling Coasters" and the Carribean troops, masquerading has acquired a considerable amount of local characteristics. This is evident in the variety of characters .portrayedi fetish priest, conservancy boy, and market mammy (im- personated by a man. These men are often so muscular and-stiff that •V INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS 56. they rouse a feeling of revulsion rather than of admiration). Another local addition is the Sakrabudu (stilt-walker). The term Sakrabudu now associated with stilt-walking was originally the name of a god. Austen Freeman relates his experience of a dance performed for this god in 1898, at Odumasi (Sunyani Dumasi?)# "enveloped from head to foot in a covering of... soft fibre and... a huge wooden mask in the semblance of an antelope's head surmounted by a pair of curved horns. The mask was painted red and w h i t e . . . . "' (fig. 8) The priest referred to, held tv/o long sticks while dancing. These represented the fore-legs of the antelope whose mask he wore, (see f i g. 9 ). Possibly these sticks came to be associated with the stilts of the stilt-walkers and the name of the god or his dance became associated with stilt-walking. The dance of the procession too is of course the high life, the dance'par excellence1 of Ghana. The opening music is usually a march, then the catchy tunes I have referred to. At nightfall the turn-out closes again with the same march, which is the signature tune of the society. The only other type of dance besides the high- life is the Atwem, a fast Asafo dance which is performed occasionally to relieve the monotony. Now-a-days, masquerading in Ghana seems to be on the wane. This is'partly due to the presence of more amenities for recreation during holidays. Travel roo has become easy, therefore more people work outside their home-towns. There is so much movement at holiday times that it is difficult to organise tum-outs. 1. "A fetish dance". R.A. Freeman in 'Travels and life in Ashqnti and Jaman, 1898', from Pageant of Ghana by Freda Wolfson, p.195. " 57. INDIVIDUAL RESEARCH REPORTS However, in some towns despite these difficulties societies are still very active. Winneba is one of such towns* The enthusiasm of the peopis of Winneba for masquerading is such that the various societies hold competitions at'. turn-outs. Awards are made to the society which presents the best turn-out. I believe that T.V., Radio and the press of Ghana can do iome- thing to put a new life Info Masquerading today. They can 'give ef- fective publicity of the activities of these societies in order to make people more aware of one of our sources of entertainment which is now faced with ' possible extinction. J. Kedjanyi.