African Arts Gallery

Acquired by a private collector, this unusual statue by its crusty polychromy, the details of its painted motifs and its long headdress, is of Vuvi or tsogho origin according to its former owner. This has yet to be confirmed. Its unusual character distinguishes it from more classic pieces. The hairstyle shared in braided and pulled hulls backwards, the face in the heart in which the features are concentrated, and the general attitude seem indeed to belong to the Tsoghos.
The Mitsogho is established in a forested area on the right bank of the Ngoumé River. The society Bwiti shared by other ethnic groups in Gabon, formed the cohesion of the Mitsogho families. It has a reliquary system comparable to that of the Fang and Kota. The initiation of the Bwiti involved the consumption of a hallucinogenic plant, iboga. Their masks were displayed at the funeral, and stored with statues and other ritual objects in the male initiation house ebanza . The statues were displayed in the temple during funeral rites and following new harvests. All Mitsogho boys were introduced to sculpture, the most skilled developing this activity. The Vuvi produced relatively comparable sculptures, influenced by the proximity of the Mitsogho. Each of these groups made abundant use of coloured pigments.