FANG - Gabon/Cameroon

"Fang" people number 700,000 and consist of a large complex of village communities, established in a large area of Atlantic equatorial Africa which includes Cameroon, equatorial Guinea and almost the whole north of Gabon, on the right bank of the Ogowe River Bend.

Fang carvings are carved with simplicity, at the same time they exhibit a high degree of sophistication in the coordination of rounded forms. The neck is often a massive cylindrical form. The arms have a number of positions: hands bound in front of the body (can be holding an object); in front of the chest or attached to the chest; hands resting on the knees in the seated figures. The navel is often stylised into a cylindrical form. Legs are short and stunted. Usually there is a arched, wide forehead and the eyebrows often form arcs with the nose.

Once separated from the reliquary chest, the sculpted object would lose its sacred value and could be destroyed. The ritual consisted of prayers, drinking, and sacrifices offered to the ancestor, whose scull would be rubbed with powder and paint each time. With its large head, long body, and short features, the Fang bieri had the dimensions of a newborn, therefore showing the group’s progression with its ancestor and with the three classes of the society: the “not-yet-born,” the living, and the dead.

The Fang tribe use masks in their secret societies. The ngil (gorilla) masks were worn by members of a male society of the same name during the initiation of new members and the cruelty of wrong-doers. Impersonators, in raffia costumes and attended by helpers, would emerge in the village after dark, illuminated by flickering torchlight. Fang masks, such as those worn by itinerant singers and for hunting and punishing witch doctors, are painted white with facial features outlined in black. They are large, long masks covered with clay and featuring a face that was usually heart-shaped with a long, fine nose. It has been known to be linked with the dead and ancestors, since white is their color. The ngontang mask symbolizes a ‘young white girl’.