The Day The Masqueraders Came
The Day The Masqueraders Came 97.5cm x 76.5cm framed
The Christmas carnival is a very colourful affair in the Western and Central regions of Ghana.
More commonly known as ‘kaa kaa motobi’, their history is steeped in the colonial days when the local people parodied their colonial ‘masters’ by dressing up in fancy dress to mimic the Dutch and British traders who wore assorted masks and drank and danced in white owned bars on the sea front.
I was about 5 or 6 years old the day the masqueraders came. A much smaller group went from door to door dancing for their ‘Christmas box’ as they called it. I was playing in the yard and looked up to see these grotesque masked people and was so terrified I ran indoors screaming.
These days I’m fascinated by the colour, the pageantry and the history. I hope to produce more paintings based on this theme.