Photocopy. [Ann Arbor, Mich.] : ProQuest, 2012 23 cm
Summary:
For generations, Zaras in and around Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso have danced lo gue. This dissertation explores what it is to experience the white masks, particularly as an urban, nocturnal, Muslim practice. Lo gue is a visually and publicly interactive field that depends on intimate physical engagement with spectators. Through lo gue practice, participants grapple with competing agendas, social relationships, personal danger, authority figures, and their own history. To that end, this study examines the ways in which participants insert themselves, and their agendas, into lo gue practice. Chapter one analyzes a single mask dance to examine issues of reception, competition, innovation and subjectivitiy. It argues that the audience's constant interjections did not undermine the larger performance, but actively shaped and even directed the event. Chapter two explores the activities of masks off the dance floor, when they tour their district, and demonstrates that the threat aand anticipation of physical violence, in concert with occasional outbursts of real violence, make it enjoyable for participants. Chapter threee investigates the role of obscurity in shaping one's experience of these nighttime events, contending that lo gue is designed to benefit from the unique visual regime and ambiance of moonlight. Chapter four traces the contentious history of Bobo-Dioulasso's urban development and shows how white mask practices provide occasion to enact values impinged upon by urbanization. Although it is a funerary practice, lo gue pertains more to life than death. It celebrates model members of Zara society and encourages community members to emulate their virtue. Through the white masks' dynamic performance, menacing tour, nocturnal ambiance, and historical relevance, participants performatively strengthen and challenge expectations of appropriate (public) behavior and identify themselves as Muslim Zaras
Topic:
Bobo Dioula (African people)--Religious life and customs Search this
Bobo Dioula (African people)--Funeral customs and rites Search this
