Statue - Keaka - Cameroon

Keake (or Keaka) statuary comes from the Ejagham sub-group located near the Cross River, on the Cameroon–Nigeria border. The figures are highly stylized: robust bodies, chunky feet, triangular faces reduced to simple openings for the eyes, the nose and the mouth, and a coiffure suggested by a handle or by pegs. They are often covered with a thick crust of pigments, beads or fibers, giving an almost “wrapped” appearance. These sculptures are rare and little documented; they appear in a few museum collections (National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian) and in specialized auction sales. According to specialists, they were used in ancestral rituals: some authors associate them with paternity ceremonies, where the father carries a child on his back, while others place them in medical contexts. Thus Keake statuary embodies the abstract aesthetics of central Cameroon, where the reduced form and the rich inlay translate both the spiritual power of the figure and the ritual function of mediator between the ancestors and the community.

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