page_title: Okuyi
section_title: Costume
hierarchical_section_title: Okuyi / Costume
caption_attribution_description: English: Private collection of author (Okuyi mask from Gabon) - Sydney, Australia
context_page_description: The Okuyi is a rite of passage practised by several Bantu ethnic groups in different countries mainly across the west coast of Central Africa. Some of the countries where the rite is exercised include Cameroon in West Central Africa, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. Traditionally, the rite is performed at numerous special occasions including funerals and weddings. Usually when an infant reaches four months of age or when a child becomes an adolescent, an Okuyi ritual is applied as well. Today, the Mekuyo rite is exercised by a range of ethnic peoples within the Bantu cluster. The coastal community known as Ndowe, also known as playeros, is a primary example, as peoples across Equatorial Guinea frequently perform the ritual in public. Gabon has two chief ethnic groups that exercise the Okuyi rite including the Mpongwe and Galwa from Lambaréné, Gabon. The man in the custome is usually the leader of the group.
  The history of the Mekuyo can be traced back to Gabon. The dance is believed to have originated from the rites of passages initiated by western and southern ethnic groups like the Mpongwe and from the Galwa region.
context_section_description: The typical Okuyi performer wears a large, loose costume that supposedly resembles the spirit of the clan members’ ancestors. The ancestors are illustrated by the dancers as tranquil and serene and suggest that they were the people who safeguarded, counselled, and educated them from the residence of the deceased. Okuyi costumes are made either from the raffia palm, a tree native to tropical African nations, or bamboo. In the process of manufacture, the underlying outfit is produced using the woven fabric hessian. The thick textile forms the suit for the performer. After that design is complete, the material is covered by frills made from raffia palm which are woven into the hessian fabric. Performers usually wear black socks made of cotton on their feet as well as on their hands. Every dancer carries through his presentation wearing a mask made of a soft local wood known in Ndowe as  ikuka (Alstonia congensis), a species from the evergreen tree genus Alstonia. The man in the costume is usually the leader of the group.
  In Gabon, the styles and colors generally remain the same throughout the country but in Equatorial Guinea, the types change depending on the location within the country. Hanging down from the mouth of the Okuyi is the skin of the servaline genet (Genetta servalina), a small forest cat. The skin has the role of protecting the Okuyi from bad spirits that threaten him. There is a relation with the Egyptian mythology of the feline type accompanying the journey of the soul of the dead, to the underworld. For the dead Okuyi who embodies the soul as well from the underworld simbolised by the genetta skin hanging from the mouth of the mask. The face masks on each performer is essential to identify the Okuyi. In Equatorial Guinea each mask differs from one another, however, in Gabon, the design has been kept constant since the nineteenth century. The design is basically a black chin and a black forehead with white covering the cheeks and upper face sides. The dark red eyes remain closed, as a sign that the person represented is dead. This contrasts with masks from Equatorial Guinea as the face masks range from geometrical forms to human faces. The majority of the masks have the eyes closed and very few have them open. Some masks that Mekuyo wear have a mirror attached on the forehead which also is used as a talisman. Mekuyo dancers also wear a cape known as an ecapa which is usually white and often features both the name of the Okuyi dancer, his birthplace and his birthdate.
  In Equatorial Guinea, there are commonly three principal colors painted on the wooden mask: white, red and black. These three colors represent diverse aspects which are illustrated to the audience but are mainly targeted to the initiated person who is the centre of the rite of passage. The colors on the mask aim to link in cosmogony to the ritual as the Mekuyo tradition is related to cosmos which are the customary dwellings of the spirits. The black on the mask typically symbolises darkness and death. The red displays the fight a person must perform during life, the strength needed to do so, the blood involved and the birth. The white demonstrates life, semen and the ancestors which the mask is supposed to portray.
caption: Okuyi mask from Gabon
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