Reliquary guardian figure "éyéma-o-byéri" (image of the ancestor)

Description

wood, blackish mass,

As a migratory people, the Fang have the custom of gathering the bones and skulls of deceased chiefs and important community members (together with magical substances) into cylindrical bark containers, instead of burying them in graves.

Wooden figures (or heads) are attached to the containers, which are believed to embody the spirits of the ancestors that are kept within the containers. They are considered to be the “the physical embodiment of the ancestor’s vital force” and also have the task of protecting the valuable contents from the uninitiated.

It is believed that these shrines allow the living to communicate with ancestors in the spirit realm through offerings made to the “nsek-byéri” shrines (=container+figure). “Byéri” figures are consulted before important tasks are undertaken and these figures are also used during the initiation of young men into the “byéri” cult. At each ritual act they were smeared with oil or blood and provided with food.

Skull containers and figures were sometimes placed in specially prepared sacred huts, but mostly they were simply left to stand in the corner of the owners hut.