 |
 |
TRIBAL AFRICAN ART
MANO (MAN, MANON)
Liberia and Guinea
Mano
people live in Liberia and southernmost Guinea and their lives are dominated by the
powerful men's secret society, poro, and the women's secret society, sande.
During a long period of initiation, the Mano boys are taught local history, law, good
manner. They also learn how to make farms, how to hunt and make and set traps, to build
houses and how to live with the family – in short, things that are essential for the
survival of the community.
Their
masks, representing a spirit (ge), have special names,
the belief being that it was the mask, not the man, which performs the specific ritual
function. Poro masquerades are not always frightening. In many Mano communities the
guardian of poro initiation is a beautiful female masquerade, honored as the mother
of all other masked spirits, who appears to boys as they enter the poro enclosure.
She gathers food and supplies during the boys' seclusion, and may convey news to their
families. Even though this female spirit is animated by a man, it is usually owned by the
woman who is the only female elder allowed within the initiation center. Mano masks
often display red fabric decorations.
|
|