Gong "mokengue" · Gabon, Tsogho · ID: 3043537
Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA (1989)
Reynold Kerr, New York, USA (2010)
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.
The object Gong “mokengue” with the object ID 3043537 was last part of the auction 88th Tribal Art Auction at March 10, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 377.
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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