(jazzy piano music) - [Voicover] We're in the Brooklyn Museum looking at this magnificent beaded mask. - [Voiceover] This mask
is covered in beads. It was danced by the members
of the Elephant Society, the Kuosi Society, in the
Bamileke kingdom of Cameroon. - [Voiceover] Cameroon is
a country in central Africa but we're seeing this
object hermetically sealed within plexiglass, in a
museum, completely divorced from the way that it would
have been used and understood. in its original context. - [Voiceover] This was a
masquerade, which involved not just a mask, but a costume, performers musicians and attendants
to bring this mask to life to do what it was really supposed to do in terms of honoring the king and bringing about social harmony. - [Voiceover] So we should
not be seeing it frozen, hung as if it was just a piece of cloth. - [Voiceover] This object
was obviously collected and has now a second life
in this museum space. It's very hard for us to
recontextualize it's original use but we know from photographs that the Bamileke Society would wear these with a red feather head
dress, a leopard skin pelt and a full body costume. The leopard and the elephant
were symbols of rule and powerful symbols for the Fon. The Fon was a divine king who could transform into the elephant and the leopard was
thought to be an animal that could transform into a human so we have that connection
between divine rule and the essence of these powerful animals. - [Voiceover] So the Bamileke
that would have worn this would have been court officials,
titleholders, warriors people that held themselves great power and in their association with the leopard and with the elephant would have expressed the power of the king, and in a sense the political stability of
that hierarchical order. - [Voiceover] The Bamileke king, the Fon, allowed this society and only this one to dance the elephant mask
and to wear leopard skin. They were entrusted with these symbols of authority and power. The main form in this beaded piece is the isosceles
triangle, which relates to the patterning on the body of the leopard. - [Voiceover] Highly stylized
though as the entire mask is it's dazzling, and it has
a kind of optical quality that is full of energy and dynamism. - [Voiceover] And imagine
when it's worn and danced and performed, it would
be incredibly dynamic with all of these various
materials and colors and shapes all brought together to
suggest the power of that king. - [Voiceover] And in
Cameroon today the Bamileke still perform this ritual, now annually but instead of warriors performing it these are powerful members of the society. (jazzy piano music)