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Article: Behind Masks, More Mystery
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- April 22, 1994
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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WE MASK ourselves to hide our true identities, or to pretend to
be someone or something else. In Africa's Zaire River Basin, people
put on masks to reveal the gods and spirits otherwise hidden in the
shadow world. The power and strangeness of that other world are
eerily evoked in an exhibition of more than 100 ritual masks at the
National Museum of African Art.
Nothing just happens in the lives of the Bantu peoples who
predominate in the region. Riches or poverty, good luck or bad, even
life and death are the workings of gods and spirits who are always
and everywhere present. To survive and prosper, one must keep these
powers interested and contented.
Masks play a central role in the ...