Gong "mokengue" · Gabon, Tsogho · ID: 3043537
not available anymore
Provenance
Ruth & Marc Franklin, San Francisco, USABirmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA (1989)
Reynold Kerr, New York, USA (2010)
Size
H: 44 cm
H: 17.3 inch
Description
iron, wood, round handle, carved with an anthropomorphic head with tribe-typical facial features, pierced neck, dam., crack, traces of corrosion and abrasion, base.
This type of gong was used in a Tsogho men’s initiation association called “evovi” (“judges”). The carved head is thought to represent “kombe”, the sun and supreme judge.
Comparing literature
Perrois, Louis, L'Esprit de la foret, Terres du Gabon, Paris 1997, p. 199 Brincard, Marie-Therese, Sounding forms, Washington D.C. 1989, p. 141, ill. 90 Cogdell, Jacqueline, Turn up the Volume! University of California 1999, p. 282, ill. 52
Publications
AHDRC: 0150599