Museu da Marioneta

Although Europe only became aware of the existence of African puppets by the second half of the 19th century, there are several references that substantiate their antiquity.

They are often mentioned in the oral tradition: in the beginning they are wooden or clay creatures that come to life and incite sweeping passions and then return to their original state of trees or mud.

Traditional puppets are present during all significant moments of the social life: initiation and fertility rites, cult for the ancestors, burial rites, celebration of agricultural cycles and of the beginning of the rain season, and are sometimes used as justice auxiliaries.

Puppets are, at the same time, able to provoke laughter through satire and the living proof of joyful life.

Just like African sculptures, these puppets were not conceived nor made aiming at a pure aesthetic contemplation: they have a purpose and a goal. They are made to be used, danced, lived, with learning goals in a religious, protective and initiator scope. And they entertain, as well.

These different features of the traditional African puppets stress their own complexity and character.