SPANNAUS1936-001 - ethnographic attestation
Roarers before the Bush-spirit
Lofa County, northern Liberia (Gbande country) - West Africa
Restricted
Source term: Schwirrhölzer
The Gbande Bush-spirit appeared in public in a great wooden mask whose face ran out below the nose into a crocodile's jaw. Its teeth were reddened with kola paste, so that they seemed still wet with the blood of the boys it had swallowed when they came to the bush school. The boys were said to stay a while in its belly and come out newborn. Another mask of the men's society walked on stilts two metres long, and must never fall, lest anyone see that a man moved inside. The masks were kept in secret places outside the villages. Drums, flutes and bullroarers announced their approach, and women, girls and small boys had to flee on pain of death.
Trommeln, Flöten und Schwirrhölzer zeigen die Annäherung der Maskentänzer an, deren Anblick Frauen, Mädchen und kleine Knaben bei Todesstrafe zu fliehen haben.
Drums, flutes and bullroarers announce the approach of the mask dancers, at whose sight women, girls and small boys must flee on pain of death.
Günther Spannaus, Masken- und Stelzentänze (Gbande, Nordliberia) (1936), p. 2
- Object
- Not described.
- Source
- Günther Spannaus, Masken- und Stelzentänze (Gbande, Nordliberia), companion text to Hochschulfilm C 69 (Berlin: Reichsstelle für den Unterrichtsfilm, 1936), pp. 1-2. Film by Paul Germann, shot 1929
- Source location
- pp. 1-2
- Source confidence
- medium
- Location note
- Kolahun, Lofa County (OSM/Nominatim), centre of Gbande (Bandi) country; the film names no village.
Regions: Africa · West Africa · Upper Guinea Poro
- Initiation rite
- Death and rebirth
- Forbidden to women