Fang (No reserve price)

FANG MASK – GABON – MASKS OF GABON
Among the Fang, as in any structured society, order had to be maintained through the use of masks.
This was the reason for the existence of the secret society of the Ngil, whose masks are well known to us and are among the most striking in design. One of them was the star piece at the auction in June 2006.

In the Ngil society, the senior initiate (Ngang), assisted by his attendants, traveled through the villages concealed beneath a mask such as this one.
The mask wearers, hidden beneath their raffia costumes, appeared in the village at nightfall, carrying lit torches.

Their aim was to track down troublemakers, beginning with those responsible for suspicious deaths.
Their actions were directed mainly at those suspected of practicing sorcery.
Once the culprit had been identified, they could be put to death.

The colonial authorities banned the activities of the Ngil society in 1910.
From then on, the Ngil became a corrupted institution: its members’ actions were aimed less at administering justice than at taking advantage of the villagers’ credulity, establishing a kind of racket based on taboos...

The objects used in Ngil rites are little known, as most were destroyed following the 1910 ban.
What remain are the masks called Ngil (gorilla), generally made of soft wood (fromager or rubber tree), with faces coated in kaolin (the color of death), as well as other less renowned but somewhat rarer masks.