Cimier "ngamdak"

Description

wood, kaolin, black paint, crab’s eyes (Abrus precatorius), resin/wax, cord, unusually crowned by anthropomorphic half figure (usually sheer abstract), slightly dam., insect caused damage/missing parts, rest. (piece of wood reinserted on the right side of the head), rep. (left arm?), base.
The mask is the principal one, representing the “mother spirit” of the tribe, in the dances held on the occasion of the spring sowing and the autumn harvest.
An eyewitness of the autumn celebration of 1949 at the Ham village of Nok described the performance of “ngamdak” as follows: The ceremonies began with some fearsome, faceless bush spirits, then the warriors danced with long obsolete shields and the hunters mimed a hunt. A troup of dancers representing the able-bodied young men of the tribe with abstract headpieces danced vigorously around two tall figures, the “mother spirits” with turreted headdresses and dressed in great tent-like painted fibre gowns. They would twirl around so that the gowns filled out majestically, and every few minutes would envelop one of the young men in a motherly embrace. Thus was the benevolence of the ancestors sought for the work of the year.

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AHDRC: 0096367