Paper short abstract:

This paper presents the masquerade ensembles of Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah as an ethical and methodological case study for working with living African artists as presented by the ongoing exhibition and publication project New Masks Now: Artists Innovating Masquerade in Contemporary West Africa.

Paper long abstract:

Sheku Fofanah is highly regarded for his skills as a masquerade artist. Part of collaborative efforts for the New Masks Now exhibition, this paper documents Fofanah’s influence on creativity in Sierra Leone and traces the movement of two masking genres (Ordehlay and Jollay) from their original site of production (Freetown) to new performative arenas nationally and globally. As towns urbanize and international branches form, members utilize messaging platforms to purchase, track, and inspire masquerades, making them not only social applications but business tools.

For example, one of Fofanah’s Jollays traveled to a US museum, while the second remained in Freetown to perform with video documentation, Christmas 2022. Afterward it will be donated to the Sierra Leone National Museum, with copies of associated footage. A complementary Ordehlay ensemble by Tetina Cultural Society performed in Freetown (2016), then in Los Angeles (2018), where it was altered and livestreamed on Facebook. Traveling again, it resides in yet another culturally constructed space: the museum collection (National Museum of African Art).

Masquerades move not just in performative contexts but as part of techno-globalization. Together these examples illustrate the multiplicities of mobility, collaborative rather than extractive processes, and the porosity of ideas and borders through the agency of social media. As this paper and exhibition argue, collaborating with artists, communities, and museums sets new ethical precedents and foundational methodologies. Such approaches are necessary to de- and reconstruct notions of “tradition,” agitate and reset conventional museum practices, and appreciate masquerade arts as fundamentally relevant, exciting, and contemporary.