LES MAITRES FOUS (THE MAD MASTERS)

The reviewer must confess his difficulty in assessing the contents of the film, though it must be understood that it is a remarkable documentary, which ideally should be seen by anyone connected with anthropology.
J.C. Muller

35 minutes Colour 1953
Film-maker: Jean Rouch

This film is one of the foremost films of Jean Rouch who is, in turn, one of the foremost ethnographic film-makers of the twentieth century. The first Margaret Mead Film Festival in 1977 honoured him, and his acclaim on many levels continues.

This film centres on a stunning ceremony performed in the suburbs of Accra, Ghana (which was still the Gold Coast, a British colony, when the filming took place) by members of the Hauka possession cult who were immigrants from Niger (then a French colony). Those who became possessed are `horses' of the Hauka and became symbolic caricatures of the British and other people of power who maintained colonial rule. First the French and then the British banned the cult, but this only encouraged its popularity and it continued to grow until independence.

As Jean Rouch said in an interview, `The cult is an African expression of our culture. The title of the film is a pun. It means `the masters of madness', but the British colonial masters are the ones who are mad! There's an attitude of both mockery and respect in Les Maîtres Fous, they're playing gods of strength'. (Rouch et al., 1978, p.1007).

Although the film focuses on the ceremony, with its fantastic images of people (all but one of the `horses' in the film are men, although Rouch notes that in most areas at least as many women as men are Hauka), eating dogs and creating foam from their saliva, this picture is countered by shots of the same people the next day in their city workday jobs where they exhibit none of the `mad' behaviour of the trance.

Members of the cult asked Rouch to film the ceremony and it is very powerful, both in its images of trance and of repression. But the power of the images is also what makes it difficult to use in the classroom.

The film is steeped in symbolism and history that is not readily accessible to the lay viewer. If this film is going to be used as a teaching aid, we suggest that the instructors read Rouch's book (1960) before they show the film and indeed suggest, where possible, their students read it also. This is one film that particularly benefits from a strong ethnographic preparation by the viewers. Catalogue number (16mm): 4RA143 £12.

1. J.C. Muller, 1971. Review of the film. American Anthropologist, Vol. 73, pp.1471-73.

2. J. Rouch, 1958. Migrations au Ghana. Mémoires de la Société Des Africanistes, Paris.

3. J. Rouch, 1960. La Religion et la Magie Songhay. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.

4. J. Rouch, 1975. `The Camera and Man.' In P. Hockings (ed.) Principles of Visual Anthropology. Mouton, The Hague.

5. J. Rouch, J. Marshall and J.W. Adams, 1978. "Jean Rouch talks about his films to John Marshall and J. W. Adams". American Anthropologist, Vol. 80, pp. 1005-22.