Superb African wooden statuette, typical of the Mambila ethnic group of Cameroon

Height: 40 cm, beautiful crusty patina

The Mambila ethnic group

The Mambila, a people of farmers and breeders, live partly in the south-east of Nigeria and especially in the north-west of Cameroon, on the Mambila plateau. Their "high-up" habitat has not protected them from Fulani incursions and slave trafficking, which means that their numbers remain low today: a few tens of thousands...

The little that is known about their customs and culture is limited to the use of helmet masks and statuettes mentioned below.

Mambila art

The Mambila are known for their helmet masks in the shape of human heads, dog heads or magpies, masks worn by dancers celebrating the end of the sowing season.

They are especially known for their statuettes, recognizable by their heart-shaped faces and stocky silhouettes, which are supposed to personify the ancestors who, according to Mambila beliefs, are responsible for the prosperity of the tribe. These sculptures, standing on short bent legs, show a large head whose face can be surrounded by hair made of wooden tenons.

The Mambila statue

Typical of Mambila art, it frees itself from natural anatomical proportions to highlight the most important parts of the body: The head, the seat of thought and especially the belly, considered the seat of the vital force and decorated with diamond-point scarifications that give it additional value.

Variants of the name Mambila

According to the sources and context, we find multiple forms of the ethnic name: Bamembila, Ba-Membila, Bang, Bo Ba, Katoba, Lagubi, Luen, Mabere, Mabila, Mambere, Mambilas, Mambilla, Nir, Nor Bo , Nor, Nor Mountain, Omavire, Mountain, Tongbo, Torbi