Pop Goes the Sacred: Dan Mask Performance and Popular Culture in Postcolonial Côte d'Ivoire

Ge performance—an enactment of Dan religious and ethnic identity involving masks and music—is an old form that performers today manipulate in new contexts to negotiate complex identities and get things done. Gedro, a type of ge that performs to entertain and demonstrate excellence in dance, incorporates influences from both traditional and popular expressive forms into a performance that consultants sometimes call "the tradition." In this article I explore the ways my consultants, through Gedro performance, demonstrate their own unique, localized views of tradition and modernity, take advantage of expanding performance opportunities, and position themselves in relation to the diversifying world in which they live.