Mask - Cameroon (No reserve price)

Stone Mambila

French collection of African tribal art. This stele engraved with human features and short limbs extended by digitated hands is representative of Mambila African art. Under the face run parallel grooves that may correspond to ritual scarifications. This type of stone sculpture is frequently associated with burial sites or domestic altars, but it may also be figures of spirits or ancestors to whom a cult is dedicated. The stelae furthermore form a symbol of status or power for elders or diviners. The upper part, darkened, reveals beneath a few scattered chips a light grain, while the lower part, supposed to be buried, bears ochre-colored pigments. Despite their relatively small number, the thirty thousand Mambila (or Mambilla, Mambere, Nor, Torbi, Lagubi, Tagbo, Tongbo, Bang, Ble, Juli, Bea) (the "men", in Fulani), settled on the high plateaus in the northwest of the