Bamileke (Mbalekeo, Mileke), Cameroon

Mortar for medications. There are the one million Bamileke spread over the southwestern plateaus in communities that have from 50,000 to 100,000. The Bamileke are the most important Cameroon Grassland kingdom in the south. Bamileke healers and soothsayers used wooden statuettes to represent the patients in their magical-medical practices and special mortars to prepare medication; the patients would be treated at a distance. Sometimes the statuettes have a cavity in the back into which magical substances would be placed. Some of them, made of wood, ivory or stone, would be carried by mask-wearing members of a secret society during healing rituals. The statuettes measure between 4” and 16” in height and generally depict a woman. (Two pieces)

Material: wood

Size: H. 13”, W. 3 ½”, D. 3 ½”

Price: $160+$23 (S&H)                   [#L9B9O026]