African Folklore: An Encyclopedia - Marshalls University

African folklore 760
head represents Sigi, the bush buffalo.
Out of its back several small rod
puppets appear, representing people
engaged in daily activities. Photo ©
Mary Jo Arnoldi.
Similarly, Ekon society puppets, once used by the Ibibio for divination and in men’s
initiation rites, are performed today in satiric skits. These carved wooden-rod puppets
have articulated jaws and limbs and represent both sexes and all ages and social groups.
Manipulated from below, the puppets emerge from the top of, and from behind, a cloth
stage. The skits have no narrative plot, but consist of a series of monologues or dialogues.
The majority of the characters represent social types, although only rarely are individuals
represented. The skits deal with family discord, adultery, political corruption, religious
frauds, and excesses.
Other puppet traditions, like those performed in Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria, and
among the Bamana in Mali, the Tiv in Nigeria, and the Kanuri and Hause in Nigeria,
Niger, and Chad, originated as popular entertainment forms. The shadow puppet plays
performed in North Africa are believed to have developed in Egypt and Turkey in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries. These plays still include the exploits of the popular
character, Kharagoz. Dating from at least the nineteeth century, Kanuri and Hausa
itinerant puppeteers use hand puppets in satiric performances. Plays include the exploits
of the coquette, the trickster, the foreign woman, the greedy man, and the charlatan,
among others.
Puppets of the pantin type, popular in Europe in the nineteenth century, were also
incorporated into festivals and masquerades along the coast of West Africa. In Senegal,
pantin puppets (xouss-maniap in Wolof) were carved of wood and painted with their
limbs articulated by strings. They were performed during the Lantern festivals that took
place at Christmas. Placards that carried a variety of messages were added to these
carnivalesque figures. In the 1950s, in the years leading up to independence, the festival
and the puppets were banned for a number of years because the messages the puppets and
floats carried became more strident and carried political party slogans. Among the
Bamana living in the Segou region in Mali, young men’s associations stage annual
festivals that include both puppets and masks. The puppet repertoire consists of rod
puppets, dummy heads, miniaturized rod and string puppets, and an occasional hand
puppet. Like the Ekon puppet skits, there is no narrative plot; each character performs
individually. In the ninetieth century, animal and spirit characters predominated, but by
the 1920s characters representing different social types began to gain prominence in the
theater. The song sung for each puppet masquerade includes the character’s name, a
praise line, and a reference to some quality or behavior associated with this animal, spirit,
or personage. The audience brings to the event their knowledge of folktales, legends, and
historical epics. Phrases in the songs make reference to this rich body of oral literature.
Bamana puppet troupes have regularly participated in regional and national arts festivals,
and several local troupes have traveled abroad. The puppet masquerades have also been
incorporated into the repertoire of the National Theatre and performances can now
occasionally be seen on Malian television.