The Hauka movement was a religious movement which arose in French Colonial Africa. It consisted of ceremonies, including mimicry and dancing, in which the participants performed the elaborate military ceremonies of their colonial occupiers. It was depicted in ''
Les maîtres fous
''Les maîtres fous'' (; "The Mad Masters") is a 1955 short film directed by Jean Rouch, a well-known French film director and ethnologist. It is a docufiction, his first ethnofiction, a genre he is considered to have created.
Historical backg ...
'' (The Mad Masters – 1955), a
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
directed by
Jean Rouch
Jean Rouch (; 31 May 1917 – 18 February 2004) was a French filmmaker and anthropologist.
He is considered one of the founders of cinéma vérité in France. Rouch's practice as a filmmaker, for over 60 years in Africa, was characterized b ...
, a well-known
French film director
A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
and
ethnologist
Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...
.
According to some anthropologists, the movement was a form of resistance that began in
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...](_blank)
. They say this pageant, though historic, was largely done to mock the settlers' authority by stealing their powers. Hauka members were not trying to emulate Europeans, but were trying to extract their life force.
This stance has been heavily criticized by anthropologist James G. Ferguson, who finds this imitation not about importing colonialism into indigenous culture, but as a way to gain rights and status in the colonial society. The adoption of European customs was not a form of resistance, but to be “respected by the Europeans.”
[
]
See also
*
Cargo cult
A cargo cult is an indigenist millenarian belief system, in which adherents perform rituals which they believe will cause a more technologically advanced society to deliver goods.
Causes, beliefs, and practices
Cargo cults are marked by a ...
*
Ghost dance
The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...
References
External links
Les Maîtres Fouson YouTube.
– article at Documentary (Educational Resources)
The Poesis of Mimesis in Les Maîtres Fous– article by
Prerana Reddy
Prerana Reddy is a New York-based activist involved with community engagement who works in many different areas and disciplines. Reddy was the Director of Public Programs and Community Engagement at the Queens Museum from 2005–2018, where she or ...
The Ethnographer's Eye: Ways of Seeing in Anthropology– article by Anna Grimshaw
Les Maîtres Fous– article by Natalie Mildbrodt
* {{IMDb title, 0048363, Les maîtres fous
(Society of Visual Anthropology)
French colonial empire
Religion in Africa