Reliquary figure "mbulu-ngulu" ("spirit of a deceased")
Description
copper alloy (bronze, brass), janusfaced, male/female, unusual form: a narrow face, retracted in the lower third with a fan-like projecting mouth-chin-area, a pierced disc-shaped projection framing the face in a circle, entirely coated with pieces of copper sheet fixed by nails and decorated with chased patterns, separate worked nose, drilled eye holes, proportionally small diamond-shaped ending, slightly dam., rep. (handle);
rare type of reliquary figure. A comparable object can be found in the Musée du Quai Branly, Paris (public collection), inventory number 3580111. It is allocated in the area of Okondja (Haute Ogooue).
The ancestral cult forms the centre of the religious and social life within the family collective. When a patriarch died various relics were taken from his body and were kept in wickerwork baskets with stylized figures on top. Each family clan owned such a reliquary ensemble, which were all kept in the background of the chiefs hut. At initiation rites the family clans gathered and each clan leader performed a dance holding the respective reliquary in his hands.