Mask and Masking
3
Anthropos 79. 1984
visceral statements about the “duality” of man
and his ever-changing universe; they symbolize
the dual personality of man and the changes in his
psychic and physical composition; they are
powerful reverberations of the paradox of revela
tion in concealment and vice versa: masks are
devices for concealment and disguise, but in the
process they reveal the multifarious forms and
attributes, polarities and essences of life, being,
and existence. That is, they present double and
tnutiple images of the psycho-physical composi
tion of man and phenomena. Thus, in a relatively
parallel argument, Robert Benedetti (1972: 72)
concludes that the mask idiom is a principal
psycho-physical “mechanism ... designed to pro
ject a sense of the self.”
This idea or concept has been similarly and
variously expressed and amplified by other theo
rists? practitioners, and critics in contexts slightly
different from, but, nevertheless, adaxial to Bene-
detti’s. Stanley Macebuh (1974), for example,
believes very strongly that the mask probably
holds the key to the profound psychological
contemplation of the essence and meaning of life.
In Soyinka’s view, the role, function, and signifi
cance of the mask are inextricably woven in
collective (“communal”) consciousness, in the
communal” metaphysics and cosmology from
which the mask derives, and in terms of the
“masonic” bond that exists between the mask and
the community. Therefore, he argues, the mask
could be the means or device for the spatial
definition of being within phenomena (Soyinka
1976: 1-60). Jon Baisch (1977: 8) similarly argues
that the mask could be a mechanism designed by
man as “part” of man’s attempt “to solve the
mystery of his own identity.” From these views,
we could deduce, at least, three important univer
sal absolutes about the mask, namely: the mask is
a (1) melange of cosmo-physical powers and
attributes, (2) symbol of the universal paradox
and duality of the cosmo-human personality, and
0) visceral matrix for the comprehension of the
metaphysical paradox of man and phenomena. W.
T. Benda’s germane conclusion that the mask
breathes and possesses life (1944: viii) crystallizes
the argument that the primum mobile of the mask
derives from the cosmo-physical agglomeration
which characterizes and defines its nature and
essence.
The geist therefore of, and beliefs involved in,
the charisma of the mask probably have their
origins and roots in the cosmological power and
vital energy innate to all organic and inorganic
matter. The hypothesis contends that a mask will
naturally assume or inherit the melange of attrib
utes innate to all the elements that compose it.
And, this ever-present force vitale is a volatile,
active, cosmic force that is at once creative and
destructive, attractive and repulsive, empathetic
and alienating, exciting and alarming, etc,, how
ever sublime, exotic, commonplace, fierce-
looking, or unbalanced the mask may appear in
form and substance. Macebuh recalls, for instan
ce, that masks have been used in traditional Africa
as instruments of warfare,
to strike terror in the hearts of the opposing forces
precisely because it was assumed that the sight of so
unharmonious and unbalanced a spectacle would pre
sumably remind them of the unnaturalness of war
(Macebuh 1974: 17).
The moral, philosophical, and even metaphysical
foundation for the functional configuration of the
mask was precisely to compel the human society
to contemplate and discover “the psychological
significance of the beautiful,” the aesthetic, and
the sublime (ibid.); to nurture man’s ability to
discriminate between aesthetic, ethical, religious
and moral values; and, to inform and regenerate
the thought and behaviour of posterity towards
the profound, the orderly, and the sublime (see
Ebong 1976). In fact, as we have noted else
where,
Ugly and fierce-looking masks were not necessarily
intended to frighten spectators but to amplify the
religio-metaphysical powers which they represented, as
well as to create and establish that feeling of awe and
reverence that was vitally necessary for holding together
the social, political and religious structures of the
community. Thus the grotesque and the terrifying
combined in a strangely unique way to become an
important aesthetic, socio-religious and socio-political
factor in traditional African recreational and leisure arts
(Ebong 1980: 90-91).
3. Masking for the Theatre
The paradoxical synthesis manifested by eve
ry mask derives from the masonic bond that exists
between their physical and metaphysical compo
nents. The mask wearer who is automatically