Gelede Masked Dancing in Benin
We followed the village chief down a maze of dusty tracks between red, mud walled houses, the silver jewels on his hat and sandals glinting in the morning sunlight. At a crossroads, under the shade of a large tree, the villagers were gathering, all dressed in black and red patterned trousers or dresses ready to perform the Gelede Masked Dance.
A Unesco recognised ceremony, the Gelede Masked Dance has been performed for over a century across Benin, Nigeria and Togo to pay tribute to the earth mother and celebrate the role of women in the Yoruba-Nago community. It’s sung in the Yoruba language and used as a way to ward off evil spirits and educate the community. Though it usually takes place after the harvest or other important events, today it was being performed especially for us.
After greeting the chief and elders, the dance began with the beating of drums and the dancers circling the tree singing and clapping. The first masked performer emerged from a doorway across the dusty street, clad in long, colourful flowing robes from head to knee, his ankles wrapped with metal discs that jangled as he stomped and danced. A bright orange mask covered his face and on his head was a platter of red and green carved fruit, a thanks to a successful harvest. He circled the tree surrounded by the other dancers, the drums pounding a fast rhythm, pausing each time to dance in front of the chief before being replaced by another dancer in an equally vibrant mask.
The masks were fabulous. A headdress carved in two parts; the lower part a painted face complete with scarifications, the upper an elaborate helmet depicting human activities or symbolic beliefs often with intricate moving parts. The craftsmanship in each mask was wonderful, delightful carved objects or figures all brightly painted; male and female figures demonstrating birth control, the animated arm of the male lifting a condom from a pot; the use of mosquito nets with a small kneeling figure pushed under a net by a mother figure; the worship of fertility with a large red phallus (we saw a lot of these around Benin, a 30cm one was actually quite small!). The dancer controlled all the animatronics whilst he stomped and danced around the tree balancing the mask on his head and only able to see through a brightly coloured veil of fabric. Quite a feat of co-ordination.
A giant beaming head popped out from behind the tree, an impressive set of teeth grinning from ear to ear. With large blinking eyes and huge ears that flapped up and down it wore a grass skirt and twirled manically, scattering grass in all directions. We had no idea what this one was trying to convey. Another waddled rather than danced with its wide purple and brown fabric skirt a distinct hindrance to graceful or quick movements. On top of the giant skirt sat a dozen small carved figures, the skirt must have been over a metre wide and looked very precarious – reminded us of It’s a Knockout – presumably this was warning against having too many children?
Another dancer with a huge, orange carved pregnant belly protruding from the folds of its fabric dress arrived and made me dance with it before giving me a blessing on each shoulder with an animal-tail wand, much to Simon’s amusement.
The dance ended on a high with what we thought was a naughty dog but was actually a hyena depicting the danger and destruction they can cause rampaging through a village. The long white face and sharp pointy teeth could have been frightening, but accompanied by a swirling grass skirt and tottering around on stilts it was hilarious. It did a pretty good job of rampaging nevertheless and seemed the best part to play by far. Who wouldn’t enjoy causing general mayhem in the course of their act? It rolled around in the dust, stilted legs waving in the air, before leaping to its wooden feet to climb over the chairs and straddle a nearby motorbike. Then it chased the children around the streets to much laughing and screeching, before collapsing on the ground in an exhausted heap. A very fitting finale.
An amazing and crazy spectacle. Enormously entertaining for us and for the assembled villagers all enthusiastically clapping and dancing along. Just one of the many wonderfully colourful celebrations we enjoyed on our trip around Benin – and this one actually made sense, mostly.
Helen (20th November 2023)
Beautiful, both commentary and photography. I am so looking forward to reading more of your adventures.
Thank you – glad you enjoyed it
Those costumes are amazing
They are indeed. We were hoping we might get a go in one, but they’re too precious to be lent out….