This picture in the virtual world was found in the elder meeting link. Immediately when I looked at it I thought of a part in the novel Things Fall Apart. As described in the book, Enoch, a tribal member that converted to Christianity, tore of the mask of an egwugwu. This was extremely unheard of for anyone to do such a thing because an egwugwu was someone who impersonated one of the ancestral spirits of the tribe. By unmasking one of these impersonators Enoch took away the immortal meaning behind the spirit; thus, the spirit was then dead forever.This picture also reminded me of the court scene where there were nine stools set up, and these stools were where the egwugwu sat to hear the case. Though there are not nine stools set up the masked men sitting there look as though they might be hearing something. Also, being masked makes them seem like they hold some importance just like an egwugwu does.
The mask to the left is a close up to something that might have been worn by an egwugwu. If you go to the link below it has some cool pics on another african tribe and they compare it to the Umuofia tribe in Chinua Achebe's novel.
2 comments:
Betsy, slow your roll! I am the one that is suppose to post first. Good grab on the unmasking, I totally forgot about that, that was powerful and to me blatantly rude since it came from one of their own people. Next class let me show you how to link words, i promise it is easy, but you might have to remind me.
I thought about the court scene from the book when I saw this picture too. I'm trying to figure out what the guy standing up is holding...
Post a Comment