Some thoughts on representing "the other"

Bapende Chief
14 x 11 inches, oil on canvas, 2020

The Bapende Work Song found on Folk Music of the Western Congo does not come with any images associated with it. The song is a work song that was performed in the process of villagers building a house for their chief and was recorded by Leo A. Verwilghen in 1954. A photograph of a xylophone player is the only of the Bapende people included in the booklet that all Folkways' series come with. A Google image search on the Bapende yield an incredibly rich array of photos associated with Bapende ceremony. The song however is not a sacred song so I refrained from using any of the images showing those ceremonial masks and costumes that are associated with the Bapende and celebrated in Western art appreciation. While usually shying away from using images owned by giant image databases such as Getty, I settled for a small black and white photograph made by Michel Huet and owned by Getty Images. The fabric used on the chief's hat has the same pattern as the headdress on one of the Rundi women that I painted and subsequently adopted not too long ago. The pattern is made of triangles that create intricate negative space patterns. 

The photo also clearly shows facial markings on the chief (either tattoos or scarification) that I assume functions as identification of a chief. I've been thinking about identity a lot lately, reading Reasons and Persons by the philosopher Derek Parfit and using the topic repeatedly in the art appreciation I currently teach. Body art, including the ever so popular art of tattooing, is a medium closely associated with personal identity. Yet, in many non-Western cultures the identity expressed is not a personal identity but a belonging to a certain group, religion, class, family and so on. The function of the tattoo is almost the exact opposite than the expression of individuality as it is used for in Western society. The person as individual, and the idiosyncrasies are more of the threat to the social structure than that they are celebrated. Many ceremonies, the sacred nature of these, are meant as a means to rise above (or beyond) oneself as an individual. To denounce personhood and become a sacred being shared with the ancestral (spirit) realm. It is perhaps rather unfortunate that over time the sacred meaning of ceremony and the subsequent loss of individuality has been used to simply control  ever larger groups that make up a society. So it happens that without any dissent the Bapende villagers happily get together and construct the roof over the new chief's building while performing the Bapende Work Song watched over by Leo Verwilghen.