Standing male power figure "mu po" · Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke · ID: 3041348
not available anymore
Provenance
Rive Gauche, Paris, 13 June 2012, lot 102Joaquin Pecci, Brussels, Belgium
Size
H: 23 cm
H: 9.1 inch
Description
wood, shiny dark brown patina, partly encrusted, with broad “grinning” mouth, small cavity in the head, min. dam., cracks, small missing parts, base;
Bamileke healers and soothsayers used such small wooden statuettes to represent their patients, who would be treated at a distance. Sometimes the statuettes have a cavity in the back (or in the head) into which magical substances would be placed and the cavity closed with a band of leather or cloth. Some of them would be carried by mask-wearing members of the “kungan” society during their big rituals.
Comparing literature
Harter, Pierre, Arts anciens du Cameroun, Arnouville 1986, p. 263, ill. 298
Publications
AHDRC: 0129365