Bulu Ngil Monkey Figure, Cameroon #92

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  • Bulu Ngil Monkey Figure, Cameroon #92
  • A particularly good monkey maternity figure figure, depicting with great accuracy the animal’s posture.
  • The Bulu, a tribe from southern Cameroon, belongs to the Fang-Beti ethnic group, known for its magnificent statues.
  • Ngil is the Gorilla, a mighty animal, that identifies Candidates following Initiation into the Secret Society.
  • Good aged patina with traces of tribal use. The Gorilla Maternity Figure is carrying a Baby on her back. 
  • Measurements: 56×25×19 cm
  • Bulu People, Cameroon.
  • Bulu Male Monkey Figure, Cameroon
  • The wooden ape-like Bulu representations are a part of this world of believes and practices, more or less related to so. These are talismans called abub (p.187) which should be kept hidden, explaining their rarity in museums and private collections.
    The "nagualism" practice involves a secret association between a human being and a nkug spirit, the latter being the deceased person malefic evus transformed into an animal (snake, tarantula, gorilla, chimpanzee, etc.) that we need to take advantage of him for hunting or eventually for other purposes such as spells - in order to protect ourselves or to project it (cf. P. Laburthe-Tolra, ibid, 1985, p. 149). Cyrille Béla indicates later that "the gorilla ngi, the chimpanzee wa'a and others monkeys were animals which regularly came up into the former Beti lives. Whenever a mourning would occur in the village, the ancestors appeared to the livings taking the shape of one of these animals" (p. 199). These primates, numerous in this great equatorial forest region, were the messengers of the lineage ancestors.
    The tradition reminds us that a "chimpanzee who is crying" in front of a villager announces him a coming mourning. According to C. Béla, these quadruhand were also traditionally privileged partners for the former Beti, and much more beyond this role of death messenger. The union between some humans and spirit-animals of the great forest overtook this premonitory function to embody a personal protection. In this regard, the chimpanzee and the gorilla are part of the animal forms beard by a nkug, meaning a forest spirit, being connected to a human, by sometimes becoming its double or protector (p.199). Consequently these animals have become banned food (mandunga) and hunting.
    Following the information collected in situ by C. Béla, it appears that the chimpanzee is one of the favorite forms of minkug as protective duplication (p.465). We notice on most of these figures that the sculptors had a good knowledge of these animals'behaviors and attitudes, both in sitting and walking positions. If the head is always disproportionate, like in the anthropomorphic statuary, the limbs length, as the torso's width or the shoulders' roundness is closer to the reality. In 2002, C. Béla found several specimens of minkug primates, obviously quite recent (pp.462 to 472, pl.63 to 68 - the nkug of Douala museum 1950), which does not exclude prior traditional use.
    Apart from the primates, the Bulu created minkug figuring the python (pl.70, in Leon Siroto 1977, pp.38-52 ("jom: Magical bridge of the Beti and Bulu of Southern Cameroon", African Arts, vol.X, n.2; et MfV Münich ), lizards or series of reptiles" (MfV Berlin, catalogue Kurt Krieger, 1965, Westafrikanische Platik II, ill. 277), a varan (pl. 73), a panther (pl. 69, Quai Branly Musuem, Paris, ref 71- 1894. 5), etc.
    Besides, since the ninetieth century, the hazard game named abia was extended in beti, ewondo, maka and bulu countries. On the almond shaped abia tokens, we can discover a set of animal representations, along with proverbs, carefully carved in reserve. Minkug symbolic was also found on them in order to bring luck.
    This dense wooden sculpture of 44cm with a blackish patina on the back and reddish on the face represents a male chimpanzee. It is an nkug, a spirit of the forest carved by a bulu villager for "nagualism" practices, a secret association between a person (man or woman) and a spirit which is the transformed emanation of a deceased's evus. The animal is a messenger between the deceased and his holder- could be himself a wizard bearing an evus- but also a magical protection (sometimes described as protective shield) and sometimes a tool for a possible spell against another person. This ritual object could be ritually dangerous, and in any case far from a trivial evocation of a beautiful forest animal.
    About the sculpture, 44 cm, we can notice the sculptor's ability who perfectly evoked the "natural" aspect of the primate: in sitting position, with squatting thigh position, the powerful torso of a male specimen, the roundness width of the shoulders, the head "stuck" in the shoulders, and the arms nonchalance with refolded fingers holding the bottom of his legs.
    The head is a very faithful representation of monkey cranial morphology with the curved occiput, the vertical face, the tiny flattened noise with drilled nostrils and the right-angled nose extending in a big lipped muzzle. On either sides of the face, we can find tall ears with circular auricle. The eyes, deeply set, were certainly filled with an amalgam of resins forming the pupils.
    The hands and legs'fingers are carefully sculpted, thin and elongate, with the handy-control and hooked thumbs figured with nails. The masculine sex is discreetly shaped.
    When we return the monkey, we notice a cylindrical anal orifice in which the magical charge mbia of nkug would have been placed. The orifice would have been closed with resin. Likewise, at the top of the skull, we notice a kind of a plug that was probably used for the same function.
    This chimpanzee statue belonged to Governor Leon Truitard, well known for others objects such as an impressing Fang ngil mask (Christie's Paris, sale of December 2011) that he owned since 1920's. It is possible that this object has been collected from a presumed wizard at the occasion of a customary trial, as there were many during the colonial period.
    Both in terms of its aesthetic interest - a high quality of restitution - and in terms of its former function as a messenger of the deceased, this nkug effigy considered as a precious talisman of personal protection abub, is a rare testimony of traditional life of former Southern Cameroon Bulu. Given its morphology and its patina, this object must date from the early twentieth century.
  • Two examples of these Bulu monkeys were presented during this exhibition and later published in L'art africain (1980, Mazenod, Jacques Kerchache, Jean-louis Paudrat and Lucien Stphan, figs.145, 146, and 971).
    Retrospectively, it should be noted that a whole serie of animal representations, lizard, bat, owl, turtle, etc. were listed as soon as 1904 at the Berlin MFV, and identified as sculptures related to the so rites.
    According to L'art africain (1980), referring to some of my 1970's publications and according to Walker and Sillans (1960), the Bulu would have had proximity cultural contacts with the Bakwele from the extreme south-east of Cameroon and other nearby areas of Congo and Gabon, via the Njem (Dzimu), with in particular one common rite, the ngi. Throughout this vast region, this rite is evidenced and its function was to fight against witchcraft. In this regard, it is important to notice the Bakwele n'go masks of the beete.
    According to L'art africain (1980), referring to some of my 1970's publications and according to Walker and Sillans (1960), the Bulu would have had proximity cultural contacts with the Bakwele from the extreme south-east of Cameroon and other nearby areas of Congo and Gabon, via the Njem (Dzimu), with in particular one common rite, the ngi. Throughout this vast region, this rite is evidenced and its function was to fight against witchcraft. In this regard, it is important to notice the Bakwele n'go masks of the beete.

 
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