The Truth behind African Carnival Costumes and Masks

All African communities know all about the significance of tribal masks and costumes. No African Festival can be complete without these forms of decorations. Sometimes spiritual overtones also contribute to the interpretation of the influence of these items.

African traditions are both interesting and intriguing in equal measure. For instance, most of the African communities believe that circling villages while wearing carnival costumes and tribal masks brings about good fortunes to the people. African festival traditions from the continent borrow heavily form a single act that involves collecting and putting together objects such as bones, shells, beads and fabrics so as to make a sculpture, a skull, or even a mere costume. All these objects are said to add to a certain force that contributes to the spiritual significance of the whole object.

When feathers are used on the African tribal masks during festivals, they represent the power to rise above other people so as to conquer them. In another sense, the feathers represent the ability to conquer problems, weaknesses, pains, illnesses and heartbreaks. Carnival costumes have always been made in the same way all over the world only that in Africa, a powerful spiritual dimension is added to them.

African traditions of making carnival costumes that add to African festival fun has always remained as it was centuries ago, albeit with some changes that reflect changing realities. Headdresses are being transformed all over the continent and indeed all over the world. African dances follow the rhythm of stylish drums that are handled only by experts and not just anybody ‘out there’. In order to make the traditional African music really a great fun to dance to, carnival costumes really have to be donned.

African dances and traditional African music has always been great fun when drums form the foundation of composition and accompaniment. African drum rhythms are unlike any others in the world. African tribal masks are always the center of interest to many people. A few people with large puppets might choose to wear large masks so as to make the weird appearance complete. It is all about Africa, rhythms, masks, costumes and fun.

Yet even with this fundamental similarity in terms of these tribal masks and carnival costumes that remain a crucial focal point for many Africans, one will never fail to tell the difference between the costume designs of one community and those of another. There are so many practicalities that a carnival band has to be formed before any African festival kicks off. In this case prior planning is needed, and in the case of very large carnival costumes, some financial assistance as well.

Creativity has to come into focus if the African style is to retain its appeal in the face of many imitations from the west. Africans know all about size and its effect on maintenance of attention. Large but well-designed carnival costume or tribal masks make all the difference all the time. To maintain this originality, it takes a great deal of time and effort to get a costume ready. Welding, gluing, sewing and batik techniques all complement each other so as to result into a stylish product with a true identity, a true symbol of real African traditions. This is the secret behind traditional African tribal masks and costume designs.