Performing Bedu - Zorogo

Sculpting transforms Bedu into a domesticated animal, painting invests it with authority. Bedu is conceived in a transfer from the bush to the village, from the sphere of the wild to the sphere of the civilised.

The wild and the civilised are staged at the New Year feast in two kinds of Bedu dances: the small Bedu (with horns) attends the Zorogo dances while the large Bedu (with disk) performs during the classic Bedu dances.

Zorogo is the transitional phase, a short period of social laxity; family ties are severed and the rules of decency abolished. The atmosphere is one of exuberance and hilarity. Men and women insult each other with impunity. The standard way of teasing the other sex is by discussing the exaggerated size of the other's genital organs. 'The men of today, their buttocks are too small, their penises too big' or, 'Look, vagina, like tomatoes exposed on the market' are among the more popular songs.

The props of the dancers - the pestle and mortar being visual metaphors for penis and vagina - also bear out this erotic bantering. In the same vein, comedians parody the everyday life of the simple peasant by using oversized fans and chicken baskets.

The word Bedu is sometimes explained as an abbreviation of 'be le oo do' meaning 'you can do as you like'. Rather than giving absolute licence, this expression has the rider 'as long as aggression does not dissolve witticism'. The small Bedu mask keeps an eye on the dancers and the public just to make sure that the lampooning does not spill over into physical harassment.