Masksong For Our Times

Masksong for our Times is a collection of poetry composed mainly in the masquerade idiom, which is characterized by song and chants, satirical comments and vindicator prophecies. As a central figure of the African traditional world, the masquerade speaks with the voice of an ancestral spirit, evoking the authority to say what everyone else avoids saying and the license to articulate hard, uncomfortable truths about society. By drawing upon age-old myths, proverbs, aphorisms, figures of language, and the accumulated lore and wisdom of community, it provides social commentary and moral guidance and directs public opinion and conduct.