Male leader mask "kam" ("akam", "nkam", "nkang") ·  Cameroon Grassfields, Kom · ID: 3049736

Description

wood, blackish mass, real hair, handwritten collection no. “G.F.K.222”, base

Very beautiful masked face with thickly encrusted remnants of a magical
mass with which “kam” was once charged. Hairstyle, beard and the long
braid are made of human hair.

The masks are worn flat on the head of the dancer, who always has to bend forward, so that the mask face can look at the spectators. The dancer wears a long garment with tufts of human hair and two staffs, emblems of strength and authority.

“Kam” is the leader of a so-called “juju” group of dancers, who perform at death celebrations and at festivities in honour of the ancestors. As the principal mask of the “juju”, which carries additional medicines, “kam” controls the other masks. The mask may only be danced by important lineage members.

The object Male leader mask “kam” (“akam”, “nkam”, “nkang”) with the object ID 3049736 was part of the auction Sale 100 on April 15, 2023. The object with the lot number 61 achieved a sales price of EUR 6,500 with an asking price of EUR 5,000.

You can find more Masks and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.

Expertise

Certificat d' Authenticite, Bernard Dulon, Paris, 22 may 2018

Comparing literature

Northern, Tamara, The Art of Cameroon, Washington D.C. 1984, p. 144 f. Homberger, Lorenz (Hg.), Kamerun, Kunst der Könige, Zürich 2008, ill. 132 f.

Publications

Morigi, Paolo, "Raccolta di un amatore d'arte primitiva", Kunstmuseum Bern, 1980, S. 237, ill. 223; Expo cat.: "Kunst aus Afrika und Ozeanien. Eine unbekannte Privatsammlung / Art d'Afrique et d'Océanie. Une collection privée inconnue", Bern: Kunstmuseum / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Berne, 1980, cat. 223 (not illustrated)

AHDRC: 0011575

Exhibition

Bern, Switzerland: "Kunst aus Afrika und Ozeanien. Eine unbekannte Privatsammlung", Kunstmuseum Bern, 22 August-2 November 1980