`Mad Masters` and Jean Rouchs `Les Maîtres Fous`

Sacred Rites and the Function of Religion in Les Maotres Fous

Five decades after it was produced and invited the ire of its audiences , Les Maotres Fous ' continues to be hailed as a landmark film in ethnography . Henley (2006 ) observes that the film is one of the most salient ' among the numerous films that Rouch made in a span of more than fifty years (p . 732 ) This observation presents a stark contrast to the filmmaker 's own ambivalence about the power of Les Maotres Fous ' Lim (2002 ) notes that Rouch 's attempt to

defend the film as depicting the colonial white lords as the true mad masters ' was rather lame compared to the real themes that can be identified from its images (p .41 ) Arguably , Les Maotres Fous ' is made interesting and provocative not only for the controversial images it contains and the image of Africa it conjures but also for the valuable insights it provides on the meanings and symbols of religion and religious rituals for African people in relation to their historical and cultural realities and experiences Les Maotres Fous ' or Mad Masters

Jean Rouch 's (1955 ) Les Maotres Fous ' or Mad Masters ' is an ethnography about the spirit-possession ceremonies of the Hauka , a religious sect in Ghana , Africa . The practice of the Hauka was prevalent among members of immigrant communities such as Songhay and Zerma people (referred to as Zabrama in the film ) who came from the rural areas in the Niger and became workers in the cities of Ghana , then colonized by the British . Rouch , using his camera and an improvised tape rec to capture sound simultaneously with the visuals , captures the image of animal sacrifice , trance , and spirit possession among Hauka practitioners (Ricard 2004 ,

. 7

Les Maotres Fous ' gained notoriety for showing the participants of the Hauka rites kill and then eat a dog in their moments of trance and possession , wherein they are possessed by spirits identified with colonial powers (Lim 2002 ,

. 40 Henley 2006 ,

. 731 ) The footage of the rituals provoked an angry reaction from both the Europeans and the Africans , who alleged that the film was racist in both ways , depicting unfair caricatures of both the colonizers and the colonized . The film was subsequently banned by the British from being shown in Africa and denounced by French anthropologists as a travesty ' that must be destroyed by Rouch himself (Lim 2002 ,

. 40 ) Rouch , in defense of his work , suggests in the film that his documentary shows how the Songhay-Zerma people use the Hauka ritual as a coping mechanism to endure their low social status and degrading employment as laborers and workers in menial jobs

Ambiguity of the Sacred

The European 's and African 's shock at the images of the religious ritual is not entirely surprising as pervasive ethnocentrism opens the film to the risk of being interpreted out of context . Indeed , the hauka , just like other primitive ' rituals , involves practices that may be considered violent by outsiders , especially...