Mad Masters

General Information

Original Title
Les maîtres fous
Author/Creator
Rouch, Jean, director.
Published
France : Films de la Pléiade, 1956.
Physical Description
VHS (28 min.)

Contents/Summary

Summary
The film presents the ceremony of a religious sect, the Hauka, which was widespread in West Africa from the 1920s to the 1950s. Hauka participants were usually rural migrants from Niger who came to cities such as Accra in Ghana (then Gold Coast), where they found work as laborers in the city's lumber yards, as stevedores at the docks, or in the mines. There were at least 30,000 practicing Hauka in Accra in 1954 when Jean Rouch was asked by a small group to film their annual ceremony During this ritual, which took place on a farm a few hours from the city, the Hauka entered trance and were possessed by various spirits associated with the Western colonial powers: the governorgeneral, the engineer, the doctor's wife, the wicked major, the corporal of the guard. Introduction by Bernard Surugue.

Subjects

Subject
France

Bibliographic Information

Title Translation
Mad Masters

Holdings

Item Type Current Location Call Number Status Shelving Location Public Note
VHSOSA Film LibraryFL Record 1103aAvailable-