Complete "bieri": Receptacle and guardian figure · Gabon, Fang · ID: 3039703
Swiss Private Collection
Description
cylindrical bark container (original) with a seated figure mortised in the lid, provided with neck ring and metal eyes, coated with a rich blackish partly encrusted patina, the container houses several cranial pieces, slightly dam. (lid);
such small “bieri” and moreover completely preserved and filled with remains of reliquiaries are extremely rare !
Just like the surrounding people even the Fang maintained an ancestral cult which was mainly focused on skull relics of the ancestors. These relics were kept in bark containers which were provided with a guardian head or figure on top, both parts together were called “bieri”. A great number of relics increased the magical power of “bieri”. This is why young men leaving their home village in order to found a clan of their own just received small pieces of the sacred treasure. Small “bieri”, like the present one, might have served as receptacle/means of transport for the “sacral founding capital”.
Littérature comparée
Lagamma, Alisa (ed.), Eternal Ancestors, New York 2007, p. 187 ff.
Publications
Schaedler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrika Maske und Skulptur, Olten 1989, ill. 28; Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Afrikanische Kunst, München 1997, p. 227, ill. 146Exposition
Olten, Historisches Museum: "Afrika Maske und Skulptur", 1989