This elegant mask was made by the F’ang group of Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. It is a model known as N’gil, which was used for dispensing justice (see below). The form is traditional, with a broad brow narrowing to a pointed chin, an elongated nose with thin, arched brows, black, coffee-bean eyes that stand out against the pure white ground of the mask. Detailing is restricted to semicircles of incised hatching beneath the eyes, a dark line along the top of the brow, and incised lines across the brows and down the nose.
The Fang are perhaps the best-known tribal group in Africa in terms of visual arts. Indeed, so much attention has been paid to their astoundingly accomplished artistic oeuvre that comparatively little is known of their cultural and historical background. They are known as warriors, partially explaining the somewhat martial and fierce appearance of their figural works.
F’ang ancestor worship means the retention of ancestors’ remains inside specially made bark containers, which are protected by reliquary figures or heads known as “byeri”. This system probably evolved because of the high level of mobility practiced by early Fang populations, and so that ancestors’ remains could be continually present even during military campaigns. The F’ang are also known for their bells, gongs, tools and other objects which are decorated with their distinctive artistic motifs. While all these objects played a major role in the development of European expressionism, cubism and primitivism, the F’ang are particularly renowned for their masks.
The most notable variant is the famous N’gil mask. The society responsible for judicial authority in the F’ang area was above all regional power, and use these simplistic polychrome masks to frighten confessions from the guilty and test the resolve of the innocent. While they look comparatively harmless today, white was always seen as a colour of death, or spirits, while the usual concealment of the mask from the public would heighten its impact as it was suddenly glimpsed by firelight, the identity of the wearer concealed beneath a raffia costume.
This is an impressive piece of African art.
