TITLE: Jankanu Mask
TYPE: face mask
GENERAL REGION: Latin America
COUNTRY: Belize
SUBREGION: Stann Creek Distrit
ETHNICITY: Afro-Latino (Garifuna)
DESCRIPTION: Jankanu mask with mustache
CATALOG ID: LABZ001
MAKER: Unknown
CEREMONY: Habinahan Wanaragua Jankanu
AGE: 1990s
MAIN MATERIAL: wire mesh
OTHER MATERIALS: metal strips; paint
The Garifuna people are the descendants of Africans of the Poro and Egungan ethnicities forcibly brought to British Honduras during the colonial period, some of whom mixed with indigenous peoples to form a mixed Afro-Latino identity. On the Sunday following Christmas Day, the Garifuna of the Stann Creek District of Honduras celebrate Habinahan Wanaragua Jankanu, a festival named after John Canoe, also known as January Cony, the British name for the chief of the Ahanta people of Ghana in the 18th century. John Canoe seized the abandoned Fort Fredericksburg in western Ahanta around 1705 and fought off European traders before his eventual defeat in 1725. During the festival celebrants dress in colorful costumes with mirrors and seashells, wear wire mesh masks imitating colonial (British) people topped by colorful headdresses, and dance to the music of drums. The dance is extremely acrobatic, but off-beat, and is intended to satirize the British slave masters.
