Hey dear community, at the beginning I would like to welcome you all to my new post and hope you were able to have a day that brought some interesting experiences into your life! In this post, I would like to talk a little about African culture and hope you are able to expand your knowledge a little.
Here you can see some African gelede masks which are closely linked to the Yoruba people in Nigeria and are very well known for their abstract art form and mainly these masks were used for ritual practices. The masks are typically carved out of wood and have and have an attachment which is supposed to represent heads and in 2001 it came to the fact that this important part of African culture has been included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and now Gelede is widespread worldwide and very popular. Often these masks should represent creatures from the mythology of the Yoruba and it has developed into an important attraction among the people and it is one of the most important traditional rituals among the Yoruba. Gelede can also be considered as its own cult which is particularly known for the dances and the focus was on fertility and it is celebrated in honor of the women and especially mothers and in addition to the masks, abstract costumes are worn and the dance performances are accompanied by music. Drums are usually used as instruments in Gelede rituals and it is also accompanied by chants and these ritual is celebrated every year after the harvest and the dancers are mostly exclusively of male origin and this has the reason to maintain the distribution of the sexes. These dances also have a magical background and it is about keeping evil forces away from pregnant women and, in addition, it should strength the spiritual powers of women. The practices also include the contact of the female ancestors and it is often described as a very mysterious cult which should accompany particularly pregnant women on their way and the focus is also on the creative powers of nature.
Thanks a lot for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about culture! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens.