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LOT 2328
African Wooden Ancestor Figure
FANG TRIBE, 20TH CENTURY A.D.
18 7/8 in. (930 grams, 48 cm).
A hand-carved standing female figure with hands placed in front of the figure and wearing arm rings. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom Equatorial Guinea, West Coast of Central Africa.
From an old Bristol, UK, ethnographical collection.
From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The people that are called “Fang” in the geographic or ethnographic literature number 800,000 and constitute a vast mosaic of village communities, established in a large zone of Atlantic equatorial Africa comprising Cameroon, continental Equatorial Guinea and nearly the whole north of Gabon, on the right bank of the Ogowe River. The Fang practice a cult devoted to ancestor lineages, the bieri, whose aim is to both protect themselves from the deceased and to recruit their aid in matters of daily life. Bieri are reliquary figures placed by the Fang upon their bark boxes to personify the tribal soul, containing the skulls and skeletons of prominent deceased persons. The bieri also served for therapeutic rituals and, above all, for initiations of young males during the great so festival. The rites included consumption of a plant with stimulant properties, which induced a trance lasting for several hours, and the “resuscitation of the ancestors,” in which figures detached from the reliquaries were moved somewhat playfully from behind a raffia screen as puppets.
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AUCTIONS:
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West African Squatting Stone Figure Pair
Kissi Tribe, early 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £7
Carved stone statues (twins) from Sierra Leone; two steatite anthropomorphic carvings, one male and one female, both with hands wrapped around the knees. 2.55 kg total, 20-23.5 cm
From Sierra Lione, West Africa. From an old Norwich, UK, collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
The Kissi as early as the 15th century, revered soapstone (steatite) anthropomorphic carvings, which are found in fields and rivers in the area centered around Sewa and Mano rivers. The Kissi people call them Pomdo (Pombo), which mean "the deceased". Some of their carvings are extremely old. These statues were the abodes of the spirits of their ancestors. In order to find out which ancestor a statue represented; a man’s dreams were analyzed with the help of the diviner. At festivities the statue was wrapped in cotton upon which sacrificial blood had been poured. The owner (the guardian of the statue) placed it on the family altar; hence it was thought to be the family’s protector against sickness. It was also consulted before a new undertaking was planned. The statues were believed to have supernatural power and were used in rice cultivation. Remarkably, the descendants of the Kissi people still keep up the tradition of stone carving. -
African Wooden Ceremonial Face Mask
Bambara Tribe, early-mid 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £20
Rectangular shaped mask with a wide mouth, a broad nose, wearing a helmet with two crescent-shaped horns and coated with possibly sacrificial material. 1.77 kg, 39 cm
From Mali, West Africa. From a Glasgow ethnographical collection; formed 1940s-1950s. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman. -
African Wooden Tugubele Figure
Senufo Tribe, 20th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £7
Carved in the round standing nude female on a socle base, with crested hairstyle and red painted detailing. 131 grams, 22.6 cm
From Côte d'Ivoire, West Africa. From an old Shrewsbury, UK, ethnographic collection. From the property of a late Lincolnshire, UK, gentleman.
Such relatively small figures are employed by the soothsayers of the Senufo people as ‘helpers’ during their oracles and prophecies.
