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At a lecture I gave in 1998, the image of contemporary Dogon masquerade (Fig. 2) incited shock amongst my audience. In place of the timeless image captured by Huet in the 1970s of a line of mask dancers suspended in space (Fig. 1), the contemporary kanaga performer wore trainers, and writing now covered the once-stark, monochromatic headpiece. This (one particularly vocal member of my audience proclaimed) was a defamation of a once-great masking tradition: How could I stand up and talk about it with such enthusiasm?
Ever since the studies in the 1930s of Marcel Griaule and his team, Dogon people have gained worldwide attention for their spectacular masking traditions. Seventy years on, with the annual exodus and return of young men to cities seeking work, with the influx of tourism, increasing desertification, and most significantly with the penetration of Christianity and Islam and developments in national politics, the Dogon region is somewhat altered. So how has the masquerade tradition responded to such change?
The history of Dogon masquerade has been one of constant adaptation. In Griaule's now-classic account, Masques Dogons (1938), mask performances were described in connection with post-burial rites for important elders, rites for the protection of fruit crops, and at corrective rites, referred to as puro, curbing the behavior of women. Recent research by Jolly (1995) and myself (2004) reveals that the range of events at which masks danced was likely to have been even more diverse. Today, to the south of the region in an area "undiscovered" by Griaule, is a surviving tradition of masked performance in connection with ancient fertility rites (Jolly 1995:593); to the north, miniature wooden headpieces are worn by young boys to rid their village of outbreaks of disease (Richards 2004:108); and at the heart of the Bandiagara escarpment, an elaborate cycle of leaf masquerades-described by Griaule in passing as a mere game (Griaule 1938a:269-74)-still has to be performed before the farming season can begin (Richards 2004:100-106; Fig. 3).
With the establishment of colonial rule and, subsequently, Malian independence, the scope of masked performances expanded shortly after colonialization in 1920 to cater for Europeans visiting the region. By the late twentieth century, masks welcomed visiting dignitaries on the occasion of official openings (of schools, clinics, roads, and...