Male reliquary guardian figure "eyema bieri" · North Gabon / Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni), Fang - Ntumu region · ID: 3045484
French Family Estate
Bruno Frey, Arnay le Duc, France
Philippe & Lisa Laeremans, Liège, Belgium
Description
wood, metal/ brass, base
The authenticity of present figure was confirmed by the renowned Fang expert Louis Perrois.
The Ntumu Fang live in northern Gabon and extreme southern Cameroon, as well as in Equatorial Guinea (Rio Muni).
Although these figures are associated with human family relics, there is nothing frightening or threatening about them: they show a serene, meditative vision of the ancestors. Nonetheless, the “eyema byeri” used to be feared and were handled with care.
Ntumu artists, through the sometimes astonishing exaggeration of proportions, sought to give symbolic emphasis to important parts of the body: the head, as the seat of vitality; the hands, which pay homage to the spirits of the dead; the protruding navel, a reminder of the link between humans from generation to generation; sexual attributes, male or female, symbolising the fecundity of the lineage.
Expertise
Louis Perrois, 21 July 2011
Comparing literature
Perrois, Louis, Arts du Gabon, Paris 1979, p. 58, ill. 29 Tessmann, Günter, Die Pangwe, Bd. 2, Berlin 1913, p. 115 ff.