ClassificationsAfrican Art

Efe/Gelede Headdress, Apasa

Place CreatedNigeria, Africa

CultureYoruba, Ohori

Datelate 19th-early 20th Century

MediumWood, pigment

Credit LineEx coll. William S. Arnett

Dimensions16 9/16 x 10 1/4 x 13 in. (42 x 26 x 33 cm)

Object number1994.004.776

Label TextIn 2001, UNESCO proclaimed the Gelede festival an oral and intangible world heritage. The festival, which dates back to the early 19th century, is held annually among western Yoruba peoples living in Nigeria and the Republic of Benin. It honors older Yoruba women, whom men refer to in public as "our mothers" and "powers of the world," but in private as "witches." This double identity epitomizes the Yoruba understanding of elderly mothers as spiritually powerful. The masquerade name reveals its purpose: Ge (to soothe, placate, indulge) Ele (women's private essence) De (to relax, soften with care). During the festival, young masked men wear a costume of women's headties and turn the town marketplace into a stage where they entertain and soothe an audience of mothers through satirical performances.

The Gelede masquerade consists of nighttime (Efe) and daytime (Gelede) performances, with different masks worn for each event. In the example here, the masculinity of the Efe mask is represented in the flat, vertically striped, abstracted beard and the horizontally striped "cutlasses" that may refer to Ogun, the deity of iron and warfare.
Exhibition HistoryAfrican Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture, The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia, April 17 - May 25, 1980
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, May 11, 1993 - July 1994
Art of Nigeria from the William S. Arnett Collection, Michael C. Carlos Museum, October 15, 1994 - January 2, 1995
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, Rotation 1, December 15, 1995 - February 1997
The Art of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions at the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Michael C. Carlos Museum, November 8, 1997 - January 4, 1998
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, September 2000 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, July 19, 2003 - March 13, 2007
MCCM Permanent Collection Installation, November 19, 2007 - March 2008
Published ReferencesHenry John Drewal, African Artistry: Technique and Aesthetics in Yoruba Sculpture (Atlanta: The High Museum of Art, 1980), front cover, 74, number 130.
Michael C. Carlos Museum Handbook (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum, 1996), 106.
MCCM Newsletter, March - May 2008.
Michael C. Carlos Museum: Highlights of the Collections (Atlanta: Michael C. Carlos Museum (2011), 99.

ProvenanceEx coll. William Arnett (1939-2020), Atlanta, Georgia, from at least 1980.

Status

Not on view

Collections