Standing male power figure "mu po" · Cameroon Grassfields, Bamileke · ID: 3041348
Joaquin Pecci, Brussels, Belgium
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.
The object Standing male power figure “mu po” with the object ID 3041348 was last part of the auction 84th Tribal Art Auction at November 5, 2016 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 336.
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Comparing literature
Harter, Pierre, Arts anciens du Cameroun, Arnouville 1986, p. 263, ill. 298
Publications
AHDRC: 0129365