The Harsh Legacy Besides the Metal Mask

Metal Mask 

A Tool for Oppressing African Culture and Mastering Slaves

How a slave master dehumanized his/her slaves was paramount to the system that held together the barbaric institution during slavery. Physical restraints, punishment and psychological tactics were similarly employed as slave masters sought to suppress labour and maintain their power, domination and control. 

One of the more unsettling tools used in pursuing this objective was the metal mask. Part of the mask's function was thus all of a piece with enslaved folks' dehumanization,to prevent you from asserting your humanity, your culture, your identity as a full human being. Here, we examine its three primary uses during slavery and its horrific effects on enslaved individuals.

1. Keeping Enslaved People from Eating Healthy Fruit

The most logical and possibly the first purpose of the metal mask was to stop the enslaved people from consuming fruits like apples, pineapples, oranges, cashews, bananas, plantains, and sugarcanes in the fields.

In the brutal arrangements of the plantations, food was often rationed, and the enslaved were provided enough sustenance to enable their work, no more.

Many slave owners thought that by giving enslaved people access to these fruits, they could gain strength, endurance, and energy to work harder, which in turn would improve productivity. But they wanted to regain some control and so tried to take away that small bit of comfort from them.

Enslaved people were unable to satisfy their hunger for fruits, because they had to wear a metal mask, which was often tightly fitted over the mouth. There was never even space under the mask for them to eat the nutrients that might have at least helped with the fatigue they endured.

The idea was to breed them, not just into starving bodies who couldn't repair themselves, but into enslaved people who would stay weak until they were kept alive by the masters at their doorsteps. The mask, in this sense, was a tactile item of oppression, and taking away something as basic as the right to nourishment.

2. African Spiritual Songs

Silencing as Revolt

A second destructive use of the metal mask involved its use to muffle enslaved people's expressions of African spirituality. Singing, especially African spiritual songs, formed an integral aspect of the culture of enslaved people. 

This music was a means of clandestine communication, preserving knowledge, and offering comfort during the horrific conditions of enslavement. They were a way of resisting, a way for enslaved people to stay in touch with their African heritage and, in some cases, to inspire them to fight for their freedom.

Slave owners recognized the power of these songs and they dreaded the inclusion and strength they encouraged among the enslaved. Many African spiritual songs featured coded messages that could incite enslaved people to resist or even revolt. 

It served to stave off this kind of defiance -the use of a metal mask. By denying enslaved people a voice, the mask extinguished their ability to sing such songs, thus reducing their capacity for cultural expression and limiting their faculty for revolt. Denying enslaved people their music was meant to sever their African roots and was also a strategy for defeating their spirit.

3. Forcing Enslaved People to Lose Their African Languages

The metal mask's third function was its contribution to the obliteration of African languages. Slave owners and overseers were so heavily invested in this belief that enslaved people must become assimilated into European ways of living.

One of these methods of achieving assimilation was forbidding slaves from using their native African tongues. Speaking in their native languages was a punishable offense among enslaved people, some of whom were killed because it was considered a threat to the order imposed by the slave owners.

The metal mask was used when enslaved individuals attempted to speak their native tongues, especially in front of their children. It monopolised the language and cultural knowledge and did not allow them to pass those on to the next generation, which resulted in the so-called death of African languages. 

This act of erasure through language was a deliberate attempt to disassociate enslaved individuals from their cultural background and history, forcing them to learn an alien tongue ,English, Spanish, or French. In this way, the mask also served as a representation of the wider attempt to erase enslaved people's history, culture and identity.

4. Disciplining Enslaved People by Withholding Food

Metal masks were also a tool of punishment in the brutal slave camps. Sometimes slave owners would also use the mask to stop enslaved people from eating or drinking, effectively starving them as a means of discipline.

The enslaved person would have no way to remove the mask, nor could they eat or drink, since the padlock would be locked. This brutal punishment was intended to inflict not just physical pain but humiliation and dehumanization on the enslaved people.

One especially torturous tactic was to stuff an apple  or other food  into the mouths of enslaved people before locking the mask on. This act of symbolic violence showcased the total power slave owners had over the enslaved. It also cemented the principle that enslaved people were property, not people with a fundamental right to food and decency.

A Cruel Irony, Those Who Deeper Into Jesus

The metal mask we have come to know, stereotypes, and weapons erupt from the history of slavery, which we must acknowledge to be ironic and tragic. The same people who enslaved millions of Africans in this brutal and dehumanizing system were often the same people who brought Christianity, and specifically the person of Jesus, to their enslaved persons.

Christianity took on a role of pacifying enslaved people, particularly used by slave owners who justified the suffering of enslaved people by promising them eternal bliss.

In order to persuade enslaved individuals to accept their plight in this life, the introduction of Christianity, and specifically Jesus's teachings,was utilized to grant them hope for a better life in the afterlife. (9.0/10) This ironic twist illustrates the slavery system's deep contradictions, where the enslaved person was not only denied dignity and humanity, but also forced into a system that was supposed to save them through belief.

Thus, the metal mask was not only a physical means of punishment and control, but a reflection of the constant attempts on the part of slave owners to take away the humanity, culture, and dignity of enslaved peoples. Freedom from the mask prevented the food you now eat, replaced the traditional African spiritual songs within your village, destroyed your people's languages and punished any rebellions.

 It serves as a stark reminder of the atrocities of slavery and the measures to which people would go to try and dominate other human beings. The legacy of this instrument of oppression, continues to echo into the present as we honor the struggles and resilience of those who suffered through slavery's brutality.

Thank you so much for reading my work! Any feedback or support that you have to offer is accepted and appreciated.