Type - Fang Byeri Head #203
Tribe - Fang Tribe
Country - Gabon
Materials - Hardwood
Age - Early 20th Century
Condition - Used
Dimensions - Height 9.5" (24cm), Width 7.1" (18cm), Depth 5.5" (14cm)

Price - $255.99 SOLD

  
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A great example of a 'Fang' Reliquary head / Figure from Gabon, West Africa. The Fang in Gabon and Equitorial Guinea still practice the Bieri cult. Bieri was conceived as a way of maintaining contact between deceased ancestors and the living. Ceremonies involved a complete statue or a head only on top of a container holding the skulls and bones of ancestors. Prayers and sacrifices were meant to establish a mystical link with ancestors whose souls, existing beyond death, were thought to survive in spirit form. The statue or head placed over the container served as a guardian and evoked the head of the lineage, the ancestor who was expected to protect and help his descendants. This ancestor was consulted before any important decision was made. It was the head of the family who was responsible for carrying out the necessary ceremonies and sacrifices for reviving the reliquary's effectivness. The only Fang allowed to take part in these ceremonies were men who had passed a painful initiation, performed while under the influence of a drug. This figure although it is meant to recall an ancestor, is never intended as a portrait. While the head recalls a deceased person, it also evokes a baby about to cry. Infancy joins old age in these works, assimiliating death as a rite to passage before entering the new world. The staatues message is a forceful one, articulated by the introspective figure of the ancestor keeping watch, ready to guide his descendants, but also expecting them to perform his cult in order to perpetuate his existence and the chain of generations of his people.

Any questions or for additional photos please email me. To save on shipping costs you are welcome to combine items form The Ebony Tree. Unfortunately some of our items are expensive to ship due to there size & weight, we only charge what it costs to mail parcels from South Africa. All items from The Ebony Tree are spray treated for any parasites.


 

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’.

  
   

 
   
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