Masquerades in African Society

Introduction
- Enter the mask
- The study of masking
- Structure of the book

The Masking Crescent: Distribution of Masks and Masking in Africa

1. Mask Distribution and Theory
- Masking zones
- Theoretical approach
- Parameters of masking
- Profiles of masking societies
- The zebu exclusion
- Methodology

2. What is a Mask
- Explaining masks: The Magritte effect
- A basic mask typology
- Bush, spirits, ancestors, and other people
- Masks and power
- Tradition, prototype and invention
- Conclusion

3. Masks and Masculinity: Initiation
- Chewing the mask
- Separation from the mother
- Liminal revelation
- Mask and circumcision
- Symbols of gender: Death and food
- Communitas and age
- Masks and masculinities
- Conclusion

4. Secrecy and Power
- Writing on the mask
- Dimensions of secrecy
- Initiation societies and the empty secret
- The sound of secrecy
- Ethics, society, and secrecy
- Conclusion

5. Death and its Masks
- Singing at the mask
- Burial and the farewells
- Burial by masks
- Funeral as initiation
- Individual and society in funerals
- Masks and the second funeral
- Celebrating life
- Conclusion

6. Women: Pivot of the Masks
- The first mask
- Gender domains
- Celebrating femininity
- Women dancing with masks
- The mask of the woman is her body
- Conclusion

7. Masks and Politics
- Masks for father
- Masks and the history of the patriline
- Feasting the sultan
- The mask as king
- Initiation, masks, and regicide
- Masquerades and modern politics
- Conclusion: The Akan gap

8. Masks and the Order of Things
- Masks in the field
- Masks and the adjudication of law
- The discourse on witchcraft
- Masks versus 'witches'
- 'Uncovering witchcraft': A mask performance abroad
- 'War masks'
- Conclusion

9. Masks and Modernity
- Playful sharks in the Delta
- Theatre at Cross River
- The king of masks, the elephant of masks
- Masks for new audiences
- Masks as icons of ethnic identity
- Heritage, icon, and commodity
- Conclusion

10. Memories of Power, Power of Memories
- Arrest that mask!
- Satire, the weapon of the weak
- Masquerades and the slaving state
- From Africa to the African Diaspora
- Conclusion

11. Conclusion
- The cultural niche for masquerades
- A future for masks?

Bibliography
Sources for ethnographic cases
Picture credits
Index