Les Maitres Fous and Colonial Memory - Essay Example

The ritual that leads to possession is immensely complex. A libation of gin is splashed on African sacred trees but also a poster of The Mark of Zorro and the Union Jack. Syncretic elements combining European and African symbolism run throughout the entire ritual. They kill and eat a dog; in traditional Nigerian culture, it is forbidden to eat dogs, so this element is a transgressive ritual that demonstrates the forbidden power the men are channeling. They make noise with the clapping of wooden guns, representing both the formal (marches and parades) and informal (death and destruction) powers of the guns from the British colonial perspective. Only “pure ones” can participate in the ritual; whether this is because of a belief that the spirits can only fill the pure ones or because of a belief that only the pure should be trusted with the power is not clear, and the answer is probably some admixture of both. Finally, the possessed are tested by burning and boiling: Proving that they have become more than men.

            It is noteworthy that the vast majority of the film's subjects (or objects, as Rouch extorts and invites the audience to truly participate in the ritual and essentially become Hauka for some minutes) are men. Rouch doesn't note this extensively, but this further complicates an already complex ethnography. It is all well and good to talk about what African colonial memory might be, but this seems to be African male colonial memory and coping mechanisms. Women seem to be reacting differently. It'd make some sense that traditional male roles would lead men to choose a coping mechanism that focuses on death, power, and violence.

            The colonial past resonates through the Hauka rituals, but in a highly syncretic way with traditional African imagery. There's some degree of cargo adulthood here: The symbolism of the British is preserved, just like the cargo cults. But while the cargo cults worshipped the cargo hoping to bring more, in ignorance and fascination, the Nigerians know what the British can do and are trying to syncretically take their power. However, there's a clear desire not to match the British, but to exceed them: The idea is to absorb spirits to become stronger than any white or black man. We see the British and the Europeans primarily through the lens of violence: Guns and military rituals.
What the Hauka represents is not colonial memory, which was recent enough to be there directly; rather, it represents an idealized version of that memory, condensing the elements and distilling them. Read More