Fang (Fan, Mpangwe, Pahuin, Pamue, Pangwe), Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Cameroon

Reliquary ancestor figure (bieri). The territory covered by the Fang ethnic group extends from the region of Yaounde in Cameroon to the Ogooué River in Gabon and includes Equatorial Guinea. Fang are principally hunters but also agriculturists. The Fang practice a cult devoted to ancestor lineages, the bieri, whose aim is to both protect themselves from the deceased and to recruit their aid in matters of daily life. Bieri are reliquary figures placed by the Fang upon their bark boxes to personify the tribal soul, containing the skulls and skeletons of prominent deceased persons. The bieri also served for therapeutic rituals and, above all, for initiations of young males during the great so festival. The rites included consumption of a plant with stimulant properties, which induced a trance lasting for several hours, and the “resuscitation of the ancestors,” in which figures detached from the reliquaries were moved somewhat playfully from behind a raffia screen as puppets. In the heightened atmosphere of ceremony, music, dance, and altered consciousness, this show must have had a rather convincing effect of ancestral visitation. Bieri figures are usually characterized by a seated position with bent legs, often with a ceremonial cup held in front.

Material:  wood, brass sheeting, tacks

Size: H. 22”. W. 6½”, D. 5½”