Liturgy of the Mask

The book explores the contributions made by masked performances to postcolonial Ghanaian culture and national identity.Colonial contact from 1875 to 1957 included the suppression of sacred masks to allow for Christian evangelism in ways that made a tremendous impact on Ghanaian society. Europeans brought theatre to Ghana and it remains a colonial legacy to date. Although masks lost their sacredness, some were incorporated into the new masked culture that was imported by the colonial administration and became part of performances for pleasure and entertainment. Since Independence, when the first president of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, commissioned fancy dress masquerades as a national festival, masquerading in Ghana has continued to evolve from a pre-colonial sacred ritual to post-colonial aesthetic, including performances for tourists and annual festival celebrations.