The Kumpo masquerade is one of the cultural traditions of the Casamance region that is regularly performed in a variety of settings. In many Jola villages, Kumpo is performed by the Kumpo secret society at the village square. However, the Kumpo is today also performed at cultural festivals and hotels, for audiences quite different from those in the villages. The troupes that perform the masquerade in these settings are paid for their performance, which is thus commodified. So far studies on commodification have focused on the social life of objects, which either acquire the status of a commodity and become an exchangeable object or lose that status and become decommodified. This chapter does not aim to describe the social life of objects (Appadurai 1986b). Instead, by focusing on the Kumpo masquerade, it describes the divergent trajectories of a masquerade. Interestingly, although the masks used in the Kumpo performance never became commodities themselves, the performance did.

This chapter may seem to tell a familiar meta-narrative of the progressive incorporation of a pristine society into the global market economy, resulting in the inevitable commodification of its relations of production and exchange. In this process, the cultural practices peculiar to that society prior to its incorporation are commodified and lose their authenticity. However, this chapter proposes a different narrative, one in which the cultural practices accommodate to the global market economy.