African Arts Gallery

Belgian African art collection.
This African fertility doll, exceptional in its size and adornments, symbolizes the vows of marriage and the child that will be born from this union. It is the fiancé who realizes it and decorates it with multiple quolifichets before offering it to the young woman. A wooden soul is established on a quadrangular base, wrapped in a fabric and draped with thousands of pearl necklaces of various sizes and colors, round and tubular, associated with brass rings, parts, horns, leather, cotton cloth knots, cauris and raffia braids. A coconut bark hat was made for him, crowning the whole thing. The Kirdi , or "païens", as the Islamized peoples have named them, are established in the extreme north of Cameroon, on the border of Nigeria.They include the Matakam, ...

Cut from light wood, these shoulder masks emanating from the Northern Baga and also used by the Nalu have a voluminous head with a buzzed nose evoking a bird's beak surmounting a tubular mouth, a long summit ridge, and wide horseshoe ears. A metal clipping, hidden by the grainy matte patina, highlights the eyes and face on which also emerge chevron stripes evoking traditional scarifications. These masks would embody an idealized baga woman, i.e. principles of fertility and abundance of harvests and occur during harvests, marriages or deaths.
Ex. Belgian collection Mercier.Granular surface, abrasions and desisication.
Mixed with Nalu and Landuman , Baga live along the coast of Guinea-Bissau in flooded swamp regions six months a year. They believe in a creative god called Nagu, ...

Songye Nkisi Statue with a nice patina, traces of natural pigmentation. Part on which one finds constant graphics, linear scarifications, stops rectangular and nose in triangle. Originating in Shaba as a Democratic republic of Congo, Songye are related in Luba, with which they divide common ancestors.

The fame of Bangwa art in African art comes mainly from their statuary, whose major works are the commemorative sculptures of kings, queens, princesses and titled servants, as well as relatives of twins. These beaded statues hold gourds with stoppers, filled with palm oil, which were served during the festivities. These gourds adorned with pearls were considered prestigious possessions throughout the Cameroonian Grasland.

The Bangwa are united in a small kingdom within the important Bamileke tribe in the west of Cameroon. One can observe the influence of the Bamileke on Bangwa statuary in which one finds the same type of facial features and morphology although pearls are not used. The position of the body is classical, with the lower and upper limbs bent. Typical of the ...