Gelede mask with bird with snake
Efe masqueraders appear at night and sing elliptical verses about competing personalities and forces at work. On this mask, a bird and snake are caught in conflict while a calm face rests beneath. This image underscores the potential of Efe to quickly strike out and catch wrongdoers with the words of his songs.
"Some elders claim this motif shows that Efe, a king of the night, has the ability and power to speak about any problems, even to the extent of handling a snake in its beak. The bird may represent a parrot, a talking bird, a kind of watchdog to monitor the goings-on. Efe enjoys a kind of poetic license to criticize even the king, to encourage him to be a better ruler." (Babatunde Lawal, 1999)
"The word Gelede describes a spectacle that relaxes and pacifies the beholder. Gelede is primarily dedicated to the maternal principal in nature personified as Iya Nla, the Great Mother; it is also aimed at promoting peace and social harmony within a particular community.
"The first part takes place at night, the Efe ceremony. During the ceremony, a mask called Efe-which means the humorist or joker-performs throughout the night, praying to the Great Mother to be very generous to the society. At the same time, the mask criticizes anti-social elements in the society. The emphasis of the Efe mask is on satire, on poetry.
In the Efe headdress in the Seattle Art Museum, there is a bird holding a snake. Some elders claim that motif shows that Efe, a king of the night, has the ability and power to speak about any problems, even to the extent of handling a snake in its beak. The bird may represent a parrot, a talking bird, a kind of watchdog to monitor the goings-on. Efe enjoys a kind of poetic license to criticize even the king, to encourage him to be a better ruler. At times the Efe makes fun of himself. In Lagos, some Efe headdresses have a round disk on top, like the one displayed here. It has a veil of beaded objects-cowry shells or mirrors, and so forth-alluding to the significance of the headdress as a kind of crown.
As a result of the transatlantic slave trade between the sixteenth and late nineteenth centuries, hundreds of thousands of Yoruba were transplanted to the New World. Many of them took Gelede with them, and Gelede performance continued into the early twentieth century. Around 1988, a society known as the Society of Yemaya was formed in New York. In Gelede, nature becomes the nurturing element of culture with the Great Mother. Yemaya is personified as the Great Mother who could provide for people during slavery, and continued to do so in Cuba and Brazil. Gelede ceremony also influenced the carnivals of the Caribbean, and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Yorubas were present in large numbers in New Orleans. There is a Yoruba village in Sheldon, South Carolina where there is a shrine dedicated to Yemaya, there are paintings and sculptures illustrating Gelede and Yemaya-so the Gelede tradition has been transformed in various ways in the Americas.
"Gelede headdresses were collected as far back as the 1880s, if not earlier. Some European missionaries asked their converts to surrender their masks. There are representations of Gelede masks in the works of European artists dating back to the nineteenth century. But most of the collectors did not bother about the names of the artists, they simply yanked off the headdress because that was regarded as most important. Retired headdresses were often given to children to practice with, but these days, they may be sold to dealers." (Babatunde Lawal, 2001)
Wood and pigment
14 7/8 x 13 15/16 x 15 3/16 in. (37.8 x 35.4 x 38.6 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.584
Provenance: [May Company, St. Louis, Missouri]; purchased by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1964; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Photo: Paul Macapia
