See alsoAnkh; Ka; Nkwa
Further Readings
Diop, B., Mercier, R., Battestini, M., & Simon, S.
(1965).Birago Diop, écrivain sénégalais. Paris:
Fernand Nathan.
Kagame, A. (1956).La philosophie Bantu-rwandaise de
l’être. Brussels, Belgium: Acadêmie Royale des
Sciences Coloniales.
Mbiti, J. (1990).African Religions and Philosophy(2nd
ed.). London: Heinemann.
Mulago, G. C. M. (1973).La religion traditionnelle des
Bantu et leur vision du monde. Kinshasa: Presses
Universitaires du Zaire.
Ndaw, A. (1983).La pensée africaine. Dakar, Sénégal:
NEA.
OPENING OF THEMOUTH
CEREMONY
TheOpeningoftheMouthCeremonywasaritual
corpus used to actualize the funerary statuary of
a deceased person. During the New Kingdom
(1550–1069 BC), the ceremony was also used by
the priests at the ipet sut, the most holy, in the
great temple to Amen at Waset.
It appears from vignettes from the tombs and
especiallyfromThe Book of the Deadthatthecer-
emonies involved in the Opening of the Mouth
have a much older origin than the New Kingdom.
In fact, a similar ceremony, referred to as an offer-
ing ritual, occurs throughout the Old Kingdom
(2686–2181 BC), in which the statues of the kings
were ritualized on a regular basis. It was incorpo-
ratedintosomeofthePyramidTextsasUtterances
20–22 and usually inscribed on the walls of the
burial chamber. Scholars have drawn the conclu-
sion that the ceremony was usually performed in
thetempleassociatedwiththepyramidoftheking.
Because the idea of energizing statues is found
throughout African religion, it appears that the
notion of Opening of the Mouth might have orig-
inated prior to dynastic Egypt. The belief that it
was possible to give inanimate objects power and
toinfusethemwithdynamismthroughthespoken
word because of its generative qualities was wide-
spread in Africa.
By the time Ahmose had defeated the Hyksos,
the ritual of the Opening of the Mouth had
become a regularized code with 75 different acts
or chapters. One of the earliest extant copies is
found in the tomb of Rekhmire. As in other ritu-
als in African religion, the eldest son of the
deceasedwasresponsibleforcarryingoutthislast
act of piety. No heir could expect to be honored
by hisowndescendantsor treatedwithrespectby
his own children if this act was not carried out.
This was equally true for the female as it was
for the male. Children, particularly the eldest
children, were entrusted with the solemn duty of
ensuring that the statue of the parents would be
energized by the ritual ceremony. The statue, in
this way, became the core of the ancestral shrine.
Of course, the royal succession was also marked
by the Opening of the Mouth of the statue of the
deceasedkingasawayofindicatingthatthesucces-
sion was complete. One of the most famous scenes
from the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen is
the ceremony where Ay (1327–1323 BC) is dressed
as a sem-priest performing the Opening of the
MouthCeremonyonthedeadking.
TheOpeningoftheMouthCeremonyalsohad
the effect of preparing the statue of the deceased
for the reception of the Ka. One could not imag-
inethattheKawouldenteranunritualizedstatue,
andtheonlywayforthedeceasedtobeassuredof
eternal life was for the Ka to live. Thus, the cere-
monyhadtobeperformedwhetheritwasdoneby
the sculptor at his workshop, at the home of the
deceased,atthefunerarytemple,orintheGolden
Room burial chamber itself.
Only the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony
couldadequatelyprotecttheobjectfromanincon-
sequentialexistence.Withtheceremony,theobject
became energized and activated to the extent that
the priests could feel the power coming from the
object.Infact,onecouldalsobeabletocommuni-
cate with the object in the most intense manner
through incantations and rhythmic poems spoken
intheintensevoicesofthepriests.Usinganancient
formula of incantations and poetry, the priests,
dressed in the appropriate clothing, at the beat of
drums, entered the site of the object and made
their potent pleas that the mouth of the object be
opened.Whenitwasopened,thepriestrecognized
the energy and declared that the statue or object
was imbued with power.494 Opening of the Mouth Ceremony