Fang statuette from Gabon

Superb statuette in wood and hemp, which comes from the ethnic Fang of Gabon

Height: 50 cm, soclée

The Fang statues

Coming from the north, the Fang settled in the 19th century on a territory divided between southern Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon; they produced many statues, 30 to 80 cm, whose sole function was to keep the Byéri, reliquary box containing the bones, especially the skull, of ancestors.

There are generally two major styles in the Fang statuary: The Fang of the North (south-Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and northern Gabon) with the substyles Ngoumba, Mabea, Ntumu and the Fang of the south, in Gabon, with the substyles Betsi, betsi-nazman, Mvaï, Okak; given that these styles are not fixed and that there is a large number of forms of transition consequent to the social and cultural fluidity of these groups in permanent movement.

The statuette presented here, probably from the Betsi region, is remarkable for the movement of its body projected forward, rare attitude in the Fang statuary. The hands placed on the stomach indicate - it is a female statue - the vital center of life: The belly.

It is delivered with its base in painted oak.