Female power figure "mu po" ·  Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke · ID: 3037835

Description

wood, slightly encrusted dark brown patina, cord, closed contours, head with reduced facial features, rectangular deepening in the back with remains of magical loading, min. dam., slight traces of abrasion;
Bamileke healers and soothsayers used such small wooden statuettes to represent their patients, who would be treated at a distance. Sometimes the statuettes have a cavity in the back into which magical substances would be placed and the cavity closed with a band of leather or cloth. Some of them would be carried by mask-wearing members of the “kungan” society during their big rituals.

Comparing literature

von Lintig, Bettina, Cameroun, Paris 2006, p. 78