The Gèḷèḍé spectacle
Subtitle: art, gender, and social harmony in an African culture
By: Babatunde Lawal.
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 1996
Place of publication: Seattle
Language: eng
Number of pages: 327
Subjects: Gelede (Yoruba rite); Masks, Yoruba.; Folk dancing, Yoruba.; Women, Yoruba -- Social life and customs.; Yoruba (African people) -- Social life and customs.; Yoruba (African people) -- Rites and ceremonies.
Description: This remarkable study explores the use of the visual and performing arts to promote nonviolence and social harmony in sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on Gelede, a popular community festival of masquerade, dance, and song, held several times a year by the Yoruba of Southwestern Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.

Lawal bases his book on extensive field research - observations and interviews - conducted over more than two decades as well as on numerous published and unpublished scholarly sources. He casts significant new light on many previously obscure aspects of Gelede, and he demonstrates a useful methodological approach to the study of non-Western art.

The Gelede Spectacle is illustrated in color and black-and-white with over 150 field and museum photographs, including a rare sequence on the dressing of a masquerader. It offers, in addition, more than 60 Gelede song texts, proverbs, and divination verses, each in the original Yoruba as well as in translation. Lawal's interpretations of these pieces indicate the rich complexities of metaphor and analogy inherent in the Yoruba language and art.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-310) and index.