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The masks of the Marka (a Mande subgroup) originated in the landlocked country of Mali, West Africa. Long ago masks such as the Marka were thought to be exceedingly powerful and had the capacity to frighten away evil spirits, convey messages from the spirit world and heal illnesses. The Marka would carry out ceremonies committed to fishing and farming, and their stylized masks would be danced to invoke the spirits to grant the community with plentiful agricultural yields and a successful fishing season. The masks of the Marka are narrow and austere, with a sharp chin. They are brightly painted or coated with metal along with raised ornamentation, achieving a fine ornamental effect that is very distinguishable and dissimilar from most other African mask styles. The men of the Marka, clad in costumes of colorful cloth, always appear in pairs to represent man’s wooing of woman. The most characteristic deviation from the Bambara style is the cover of metal sheeting worked in conjunction with three metal bars attached to the forehead and red cotton at the end of each. The Marka society applied this mask in two rituals, at the circumcision ceremony of adolescents, and when circumcised men advance from one grade to another. Along the Niger River the Marka applied the masks in ceremonies related to fishing and farming. This ethnic group is independent from the Bambara tribe but their styles show a strong Bambara influence. They live in the region that extends from the north of the Bambara to the Senegalese border. They live primarily from agriculture with some subsidiary cattle rearing in the northern portion of their territory. The arid savanna permits no more than a subsistence economy, and the soil produces, with a great deal of difficulty, millet, rice, and beans. Fertility played an indispensable role in African Agricultural ceremonies. They were based on the idea that through the rectify rituals, man could raise up the critical forces dwelling in a mask by benefitting the benediction of his ancestor in order to aid fertility and consequently achieve shelter and primary security. The Agricultural Festivities the Africans celebrated were performed at dissimilar stages of the crop cycle. This crop cycle started with clearing of the land, then the planting, the reaping of the fruits, the harvest and in the end the filling of the feed stores. The conception of these festivals was the sacredness of the soil, which belonged to the ancestors, or the “masters of the soil”. A successful harvest hence depended on the thanksgiving of the ancestors or now and again upon the good will of the goddess of the earth. African Masks
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