Anang Art, Drama, and Social Control

Extract

Carving, raffia weaving, and appliqueing are the main art forms of the northern Anang of Calabar Province, Nigeria. A great variety of carved and woven objects is produced by numerous Anang artisans, many of whom exhibit a high order of talent, especially when creating artifacts for traditional (rather than tourist) usage. Unfortunately, the appliqueing of funeral cloths for ritualistic purposes is a rapidly disappearing art, while the painting of funeral murals to serve the same end, which preceded and for a time was practiced concurrently with appliqueing, has disappeared altogether.

Both-carvers and weavers serve the nineteen Anang voluntary associations, of which seven are religious groups, five are social, five are orchestral, and two are dramatic. Four of the associations employ wooden masks, four raffia masks and costumes, and two wooden puppets, and all utilize an assortment of minor carved and woven articles produced by professional artisans. This paper will be concerned with the use of wooden masks, puppets, and figurines by one of the drama associations——in plays which are presented to amuse audiences by ridiculing the motives and actions of well-known individuals and groups. All of the Anang associations have social control functions as regards their membership or the larger community, or both, but , through its system of rules governing the behavior of members and through its plays acted by humans and puppets, exerts the broadest measure of social control of any association-over individuals, kinship and political groups, other associations, and even the missions and, at one time, the colonial government.