The varying relationships between African youth participating in initiation rites and the elders who conduct the rites were richly available in the literature when completing my dissertation on Kuba male initiation rites in the 1980s. But during the same period there were scant discussions on the pre-initiation period when children are often involved in such play activity as mask and costume making, which often includes masked performances with dance, song, and musical accompaniment. I found these forms of childhood play to be a dominant feature for Kuba boys living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The correlation between childhood art-making and play activity and adult artistic expression was suggested by Simon Ottenberg in an important article entitled “The Childhood of African Art” (1976). The article called for more serious study and analysis of the role of art-making by children and its role in the development of adult aesthetic skills in...