As part of African Heritage Month activities @ Brock University and Festive’Ébène, the Library is hosting an exhibit of hand-crafted ceremonial masks curated by Nafée Faigou of Solidarité des femmes et familles interconnectées francophones du Niagara (SOFIFRAN).

Nafée notes that “masks are vital to many aspects of life in Africa. They are powerful tools that Africans employ to ensure the health of their community.  Various themes run through the masking traditions of African societies; they are both social and religious, with all the ramifications of both establishments. A distinction between them is hard since they overlap and intertwine. Masks are living presences that represent and mediate between the empirical and the supernatural worlds at those moments when power, protection, and the crisis of life and death are in dubious balance. Today, they still accompany everyday life in and outside of Africa.”

SOFIFRAN is a non-profit community organization created in 2006 by Francophone immigrant women – living in the Niagara region and from various parts of the world. The organization aims to meet the needs of women by providing services in the social, educational, cultural and economic fields.

Masques, Mythes et Mascarades – Masks, Myths and Masquerades is on display until March 1.