African masks very often appear as part of museum exhibitions, but really in order to appreciate African masks, as they were meant to be seen, they should be seen as integral to the religious and spiritual life of the village.
For African villagers, the mask is the very spirit of the Spirit portrayed. When the spirit (the mask) enters into the public area, the mask achieves a reality that is difficult for Westerners to understand. Naturally this reality is far from what people understand, when they see a mask in a museum case behind glass.
This reenactment of an Ivoirian village scene was captured at the African Arts Festival held at the U.S. headquarters of the Society of African Missions (SMA Fathers) in Tenafly, NJ Sept. 2012. It was performed by the Ivoirian Dance Company of Yahayaha Koumate.
The majority of people attending the festival were themselves citizens of Cote d'Ivoire (The Ivory Coast) and were familiar with the masks from their own childhood in the villages.