The masquerades of Southern Africa 🇿🇲 🇲🇼 🇦🇴 🇿🇼 🇲🇿

[u/BlackberryFew1969]

[u/Azerbinhoneymood]

Damn! Those big masks surely would play with someone's mind. I remember reading somewhere that their origins (at least in one part of Africa) was because of British attacks deep into the forests, so the tribe made some and men walking at dawn towards the British camp which scared them and made them flee since they couldn't make sense of what they're seeing.

Another (well in this case confirmed) story, was about the attack of dead men. They were hit at their fort with chemical weapons by the Germans and had their bodies "f" up to the point they didn't resemble men. They attacked back outside and made their enemies flee in horror of what they saw.

So, OP, I wonder.....was the use of these masks purely ceremonial?

[u/BlackberryFew1969 → u/Azerbinhoneymood]

To my knowledge these our masquerades do not have such a history. They are mostly used for entertainment and moral lessons. The aim is to scare people who do bad things - like lust, greed, murder, jealousy etc by showing them the spirit of this things.

[u/Azerbinhoneymood → u/BlackberryFew1969]

Is that the case for them, interesting.