African Masks- Grade 4

During the unit ‘Rituals and Traditions’ students looked at how rituals, traditions and artefacts of different cultures are expressions of their beliefs and values. To understand it further they explored art from different cultures such as masks from Africa where they inquired into the different characteristics of the art form such as the material used, common subject/themes, colours used, drawing style, use or purpose of the art form to see how art from a culture shows their beliefs and values.

Masks are important part of the African Culture. They are used as a disguise, or a costume but are never played with as Africans believe that masks were very powerful. They wore masks in ceremonies and special events like masquerades. These ceremonies are held to honor the dead, gods/goddesses, animals, and even important people in their society like the king. Once a dancer puts on a mask, he stops being himself and behaves like an animal or person his mask represents. It is believed that masquerades are a way to talk with ancestors and spirits. They use a variety of material to create these masks such as wood, cloth, animal fur, clay. For decoration, Africans used things such as bird feathers, dried, grass, paint, and twigs. The type of material used really depends on what they are trying to represent.

Students of Grade 4 have mainly used newspaper, recyclable paper, jute thread and other waste material such as toilet paper roll and beads to create their masks.