Rare male headdress "ndim" · Cameroon, Tikar · ID: 3047155
Ketterer, Munich, 18 November 1978, Lot 188
presumably Robert Jacobsen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Knud Nielsen, Jelling, Denmark
Description
wood, pigments, base
One of the few known headpieces of this species (ex Arthur Speyer) is published by Northern, Washington D.C., 1984, p. 171 (AHDRC 0011138).
She reports that these masks appeared at annual harvest dances and at death celebrations in praise of the ancestors. This was confirmed by Timmermans, who observed during a stay in Tikar, that the masks were worn by members of the ruling families at the so-called “ngiga” or “nganga-dance”, a funeral dance that took place at the end of the mourning-period.
They are said to have always appeared in pairs, male and female, as embodiment of the founding ancestors of the royal lineage. The masks are said to have been called “ndim-yang” (“ndim” = male) and “mih”-yang" (“mih” = female).
Comparing literature
Northern, Tamara, The Art of Cameroon, Washington D.C. 1984, p. 171, ill. 104
Publications
Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst in Deutschen Privatsammlungen, München 1973, p. 287, ill. 410; Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst, München 1975, p. 198, Fig. 285AHDRC: 0011136