Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Silenced Mbembe Muses

2013; University of Chicago Press; Volume: 48; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1086/675318

2169-3072

Alisa LaGamma,

African history and culture studies

Previous articleNext article FreeSilenced Mbembe MusesAlisa LagammaAlisa LagammaCurator in Charge, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreWith its penetrating rawness and poetic lyricism, a recent acquisition by The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a striking centerpiece for the African collection (Figure 1a. Carved from a dense wood, this sculpture—addressing a subject of universal relevance, the relationship of mother and child—has endured some three hundred years since its creation by an artist active in what is today southeastern Nigeria, near the Cameroonian frontier (Figure 2).1 The integration of this work into the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing’s survey of sub-Saharan art introduces a seminal yet relatively unfamiliar sculptural tradition that is known through fewer than twenty works now preserved in the West. This essay examines the Metropolitan Museum’s Maternity Figure: Seated Mother and Child in relation to that body of work. It further addresses what is known about their collective history and seeks to integrate these fragmentary artifacts into a fuller picture of the role they may have played in their original communities.1a. Maternity Figure: Seated Mother and Child. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 15th–17th century. Wood, pigment, resin, nails, H. 42½ in. (108 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, 2010 and 2008 Benefit Funds, Laura G. and James J. Ross, David and Holly Ross, Noah-Sadie K. wachtel Foundation Inc. and Mrs. Howard J. Barnet Gifts, 2010 (2010.256). Photograph: The Photograph Studio, MMA1b. Detail of Figure 1a2. Map showing the Mbembe region. From Kamer 1974. © Hélène KamerThe Metropolitan Mbembe Maternity FigureIn the Metropolitan work, a seated woman gazes forward with her hands placed on either knee. The rounded volume of her head contrasts sharply with the rectilinear outline of her shoulders. Below the point of intersection of the limbs, the calves extend down vertically. At the compositional midpoint, the horizontal form of a child sweeps across the vertical axis of the female torso. That element extends with its head at the mother’s proper left hip and its legs wrapped around her right side. At the base and back of the female figure are signs that it was originally part of a larger entity. On the reverse side the exposed wood surface is raw from the neck down. Across the rest of what remains of the finished surface, the pronounced vertical grain is in vivid evidence throughout. Erosion has resulted in deeply grooved channels that powerfully define the overall aesthetic, and this weathering has instilled the subject with a heightened quality of endurance and fortitude. Despite this process of wear, a great deal of surface detail has survived. Crisp outlines of the ovoid ears project from the sides of the head, deep eye cavities command attention, and the face retains an expression of contemplative introspection. Paradoxically, exposure to the elements appears to have somehow distilled the work, so that its essence is revealed.This object was acquired in 2010 from Hiroshi Ogawa through Christie’s. Ogawa had purchased it in 1974 from Hélène Kamer’s gallery in Paris shortly after its arrival from western central Africa.2A Pioneering ExhibitionKamer presented Mbembe sculpture in the landmark exhibition “Ancêtres M’Bembé,” which introduced the international art world to what remains to this day essentially the Mbembe corpus (Figures 3–5).3 The eleven full-bodied, rugged, and rustic figures of monumental stature featured in that inaugural show presented a completely unknown sculptural tradition to connoisseurs of African art. That sensibility constituted a major departure from the established tastes for traditions like those of the Dogon of Mali and the Fang of Gabon that gallerists had emphasized since the early twentieth century. In the introduction to her catalogue, the sole monograph devoted to this tradition, Kamer (now Leloup) reflected on the new direction epitomized by this discovery: “For the last twenty years that I have devoted to ‘l’art nègre,’ I’ve seen the interest and taste of collectors evolve. In this art that was called ‘savage,’ a preference for forms already defined by a classic perfection developed: Fang statues, Baule masks, Benin bronzes. The criteria of quality were the fineness of the sculpture, harmony of the volumes, brilliance of the patinas, in short, the same as those used since the Renaissance to judge works of art.”4 For Kamer, the forms embraced up until then were assimilated relatively easily into Western tastes, but the tough boldness of this artistic vision represented a challenging departure.3. Invitation to “Ancêtres M’Bembe,” Galerie Kamer, Paris, May 28, 1974. © Hélène Kamer4. Installation view, “Ancêtres M’Bembé,” Galerie Kamer, Paris, 1974. © Hélène Kamer5. Installation view, “Ancêtres M’Bembé,” Galerie Kamer, Paris, 1974. Figure 21 in this article (Figure 1 on the gallery exhibition checklist) is not shown in this image, as that work was displayed in the gallery window (see Figure 4). © Hélène KamerThe unveiling of the Mbembe works made manifest a tradition unlike any that had defined African art until then and epitomized the potential for new revelations that remained possible in the field. In February 1974, shortly before the exhibition, one major work was acquired from Kamer by the curator Pierre Meauzé for the Musée des Arts Africains et Océaniens (now part of the Musée du Quai Branly), Paris (Figure 6). It was also published by the authority on Nigerian art, Ekpo Eyo, in the survey Two Thousand Years, Nigerian Art, issued to mark the Second world Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, which was held in Lagos, Nigeria, from January 12 to February 15, 1977. That seated figure, with its long attenuated limbs, arms extended forward and cupped hands resting on either knee, is now among the highlights of non-western art featured in the Pavillon des Sessions at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. The work’s human form is pared down to its underlying structure, so that its gender is difficult to determine. Surface erosion to the face has swept away most of its original features. All that survives are traces of horizontal depressions for the eyes and mouth as well as the slight vertical ridge of the nose and oval ears that project at either side of the head. Throughout, the exposed grain of the wood is emphatically horizontal, and successive parallel strata visually evoke layer upon layer of geological sedimentary deposits. In its report for the minister of cultural affairs at the time of acquisition, the Louvre’s laboratory analyzed the wood and identified it as Afzelia africana, otherwise known as “doucier” (a variety of oak), or “apia.” Several varieties of this tree are known to attain a maximum height of 65½ feet and a diameter of 6½ feet. X-rays revealed that the work is composed of a single piece of wood but that the nose had been reattached and partially restored. The author of the conservation report concluded, “The X-ray study of the entirety of the sculpture underscores the beauty of the work.”5 Despite the extent to which the representation has been distilled, the suggestion of an expression of intense reflection lingers.6. Seated Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood (Afzelia), H. 25⅜ in. (64.5 cm). Musée clu Quai Branly, Paris (inv. MNAAN 74.1.1). Photograph: Hughes Dubois; Musée du Quai Branly/Scala/Art Resource, NYThe Discovery: From the Cross River to the Left BankThe international recognition of Mbembe sculpture resulted from field collecting by the African dealer named O. Traoré in dialogue with the eye and instincts of Hélène Kamer. Already established internationally as a leading dealer in African art, Kamer had undertaken extensive collecting on the ground in Mali, Guinea, and Ivory Coast earlier in her career. She recalls that during the 1970s West Africans regularly traveled to Paris with works that they had imported into France, and active collectors and dealers perused them in the hotel rooms of the sixth arrondissement that the Africans used as their base of operation.6 Through these channels, an influx of artifacts from the Nigerian-Cameroonian border region commenced, as a result of two phenomena: European art dealers were not traveling to this area because of the Biafran war, and Malians engaged in the art trade during the 1950s and 1960s, having exhausted sources for material closer to home, had continued to seek out artifacts farther and farther east.7 Kamer first became aware of Mbembe sculpture on September 29, 1972, when she encountered Traoré, a dealer from an established Malian family, at the hotel where he was staying on the rue de l’Ancienne Comédie. Among the works she saw that afternoon, a massive statue from Nigeria with broken arms immediately caught her attention. In acquiring that work, Kamer inquired about its origins. In order to protect his source, Traoré declined to discuss specifics of where it had been collected but promised to return with other examples as well as information on their use, significance, and subject matter, which he would gather from an elder on his next visit to the region.From his base in Lomé, Togo, close to the Nigerian border, Traoré made two further forays to obtain additional works for Kamer. He returned to Paris from the first trip on February 6, 1973.8 At that time he provided the provenance of the works he brought with him, relating them to a small group known as the Mbembe, located east of the town of Abakaliki in the former Anambra State in the Cross River region (Figure 7). He further reported that an Igbo elder had informed him that Mbembe chiefs oversaw annual tributes to the founder of their village’s lineage. Such celebrations took place in a large structure where all men who had proven themselves as warriors gathered. A monumental sacred drum, ten to thirteen feet long and adorned with representations of the founding couple, was the principal feature of this setting. The female subject depicted was the spouse who had given birth to the lineage’s first male descendant. Young men demonstrated their worthiness by placing before the drum, which served as a shrine, the severed head of an enemy they had slain.9 British colonial interdictions of such devotional practices contributed to the decline and gradual abandonment of these village sanctuaries. Traoré indicated that it was nonetheless necessary for him to obtain the consent of the community to acquire the damaged works that survived. On July 13, 1973, he returned to Paris from his final reconnaissance journey in search of Mbembe works. He had alerted Kamer in advance that nothing further remained in situ. In addition to transferring the last remaining sculptures for what was then a considerable price of 55,000 francs, he relayed information obtained from an elder concerning their association with historical figures. After that exchange, Kamer never heard from Traoré again. The content he provided was published with the launch of the gallery exhibition on May 28, 1974.10 In her commentary Kamer situates the provenance of all twelve works acquired over the course of her exchanges with Traoré in relation to the town of Obubura.117. Map of the Cross River region. From Partridge 1905Beyond those twelve Mbembe works, only about five others are identified in western collections, including two intact drums in Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum (formerly Museum für Völkerkunde), both collected in 1907 (Figures 8, 9); a seated female figure in the national Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C. (Figure 10); a seated male figure now in a private collection (Figures 11a, 11b); and a seated male figure formerly owned by the French-born artist Arman.12 Within this context, the monumentality and full-bodied treatment of the examples first presented by Kamer are distinguished by an overarching stylistic consistency that suggests the work of three distinct hands.8. Slit Drum: Seated Figures. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, ca. 1520–1620. Wood, L. 130 in. (330 cm). Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, acquired from M. von Stefenelli (III C 21947). Photograph: © bpk, Berlin/Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen/Art Resource, NY9. Slit Drum: Seated Male Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 19th century. Wood, L. 86⅝ in. (220 cm). Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin, acquired from M. von Stefenelli (III C 21948). Photograph: © Ethnologisches Museum, Berlin–Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz10. Maternity Figure: Mother and Child. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 19th–early 20th century. Wood, pigment, seeds; 26¾ × 19⅛ × 19¾ in. (68 × 48.6 × 50 cm). National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Museum Purchase (85-1-12). Photograph: © Photograph by Franko Khoury, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.11a. Seated Male Figure with Rifle and Bowler Hat. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 20th century. Wood, H. 39¾ in. (101 cm). Private collection. Photograph: © Pauline Shapiro/Sotheby’s11b. Back of Figure 11aA History Of The MbembeThe attribution of these works to a Mbembe cultural tradition identifies them with a term that was not in use prior to the nineteenth century. The communities to which these works have been credited were small, highly decentralized ones on the banks of the middle cross River and its northern tributary, the Ewayon̆, or Aweyon̆. Historically, raids by coastal peoples who supplied the Atlantic slave trade heavily affected the larger cross River region. The port of Calabar was the seat of that market and of the European presence from the sixteenth century onward. Until the late nineteenth century, however, European trade goods and Christian beliefs made their way inland indirectly through middlemen-merchants such as the people of Arochukwu, who fiercely prevented coastal traders from passing through their villages.13 The nineteenth-century colonial occupation of the region by Britain marked an end to the slave trade as well as to certain indigenous religious practices. A British government station for the cross River region was established at Ikom in 1884, and by 1900 its district commissioner Sir Ralph Moor had led a punitive expedition to Arochukwu. That campaign opened the way for British firms to develop trading posts upriver.14Over the course of the nineteenth century, migrations of peoples from the north and south toward the left banks of the Cross River led to the convergence of many rival groups. The term “Mbembe” came to be associated with a number of villages concentrated on the east side of the middle cross River and Awayong Creek, east of the eastern and northeastern Igbo peoples and west of the Ejagham, in the area around the town of Obubura in the former Ogoja Province. Anthropologist Rosemary Harris, who undertook field research in the region during the 1950s, has noted that in 1965 the designation “Mbembe” covered the compact settlements of a semi-Bantu population of less than 40,000 in villages of 100 to 3,000 inhabitants.15 The Mbembe observed a double unilineal kinship system in which rights to land and houses were inherited through the father and other movable property and jural rights over individuals through the mother.16 Ekamanei, or “born of the same mother,” denoted the latter and was conceived as a group among whom wealth was shared.17At the beginning of the twentieth century, each independent Mbembe settlement was led by a head chief appointed by his peers. In this capacity he served as the principal medium through which the community communicated with the spiritual realm, linking the living to the departed. Leaders who performed this priestly function were referred to as Okpobam.18 Sir Charles Partridge (1872–1955), a British colonial official who served as assistant district commissioner in the Obubura Hill District, recounted a 1903 interview with one such head chief in the palace of Etatin. Enthroned on an elevated clay couch, the leader provided the following account of his duties: “I am the oldest man of the town, and they keep me here to look after the jujus, and to conduct the rites celebrated when women are about to give birth to children, and other ceremonies of the same kind. By the observance and performance of these ceremonies, I bring game to the hunter, cause the yam crop to be good, bring fish to the fisherman, and make rain to fall.”19In Mbembe society, all men and women identified with age-set groupings, and men also belonged to multiple structured associations. Such organizations crossed kinship lines and played a role in governance. They constituted an executive branch within the village and maintained a shrine outside its confines in the bush.20 Among their responsibilities were the selection and installation of chiefs and the funeral rites of association members.21 They had the authority to redress the infractions of individuals in a given community by exacting fines on their matrilineage. In response to such penalties, the family exerted its influence to reform the offender’s behavior.22 The popularity of such groups constantly shifted to allow for the adoption of new ones.23 By the 1950s, however, the associations’ power had diminished to such an extent that men were reluctant to pay the entrance fees.24 Those cited as most influential were Eberambit, the preeminent warriors’ association; Ocheika, whose focus was ritual; and Okwa, devoted to secular concerns. Harris notes that entry into Eberambit required not only the payment of a fee but also evidence of martial prowess demonstrated by the presentation of an enemy’s head.25The Ekpe, or Leopard Society, was active throughout the Cross River region during the nineteenth century.26 It had originated among the Ejagham peoples by the 1600s as a secret association known as Ngbe in the forested regions of southeastern Nigeria and southwestern Cameroon. From there it was disseminated along trade routes to neighboring groups including the Efik, Ibibio, Anang, and Igbo, all members of the semi-Bantu language family; the Bantu-speaking Kpe and Balundu; and some of the Kwa-speaking Igbo.27 On a local level, membership in a specific chapter of Ekpe/Ngbe brought together a community’s men whatever their kinship ties. Its hierarchical grades allowed individuals to attain mastery of increasingly esoteric degrees of knowledge. Advancement was self-determined based on ambition and financial means.28 Every chapter owned a shrine, drums, and costumes that were housed in a lodge prominently situated within the village. On a regional level Ekpe/Ngbe afforded its diverse and highly decentralized membership a shared ritual affiliation and a network of interactions that contributed to their peaceful coexistence.29The Ikoro As A Communal Mbembe MouthpiecePrior to the twentieth century, a focal point of each autonomous Mbembe community, as well as those of the closely related Ibibio, was a monumental ceremonial drum, a slit gong with two apertures at the top, known as an ikoro.30 Housed in a dedicated sanctuary, the ikoro served as an altar. It was also the means by which community members were apprised of important developments and through which they collectively communicated with their neighbors. The ikoro was played with two sticks of hard wood exclusively by the individual assigned that role. Its sound, or communal voice, could carry announcements over a distance of ten kilometers. News ranged from emergency warnings of fire or enemy attack to announcements of the deaths of important elders or the launch of a festival. Most important, the beating of the ikoro was used to summon the community’s men to demonstrate valor in warfare, and warriors responded by presenting the ikoro with a trophy head on their return from battle. According to Traoré, semiannual celebrations before the sanctuary featured dancing to songs of martial prowess.31A site of its constituents’ spiritual force, an emblem of their unity, and the centerpiece of civic life, each instrument was given a specific name and closely identified with a particular village. Accordingly, its creation was a significant undertaking and necessitated lavish ornamentation. By the time Harris did her research, she found no signs of wood carving in Mbembe communities and learned that carved artifacts were generally purchased from neighboring peoples.32 Given the ikoro’s importance and scale, the creative process was especially demanding. An elaborate ritual celebration preceded the selection and cutting of the tree from which the log for the drum was hewn.33 Hollowing and carving took weeks or months, over the course of which the artist’s tools required daily refortification by the associated deity.34 Each work was customized to feature a sculptural program of figurative or animal imagery at one or both ends of the slit gong’s cylindrical body. The human subjects were typically a nurturing maternity figure or a fierce male warrior brandishing weaponry and a trophy head. While the two subjects might be placed at opposite ends of a single instrument, some drums were ornamented with a single figure at one end or the same figure at both ends. Percy Amaury Talbot (1877–1945), who served as a district officer, described one classic example documented in an Ekoi village: “At Nchofan . . . the drum . . . was a wonderful example of its kind. It was cut from a solid piece of wood, trough-shaped. . . . At either end sat a carved figure, male to the right, female to the left, and to the right hand of the latter, raised on a post, was Tortoise.”35 While the depiction of the aggressive male figure alludes to the heroism of the community’s defenders, that of the life-sustaining mother addressed the essential role of its women in ensuring prosperity through numerous offspring.36 Upon the instrument’s completion, rituals of consecration served to “open the heart” of the drum.37 Harris provides an account of funerary rites that she witnessed in the Adun village of Ofada in 1957 in which a slit gong was a central element. The instrument was the property of the Ekagu association, whose members had gathered to mark the passing of one of their group. While she does not comment on any sculptural elaboration of the instrument, she relates that each member danced before the corpse and concluded his tribute by throwing an egg at the slit gong. The egg was thought of as a receptacle for life and symbol of divinity. That ritual gesture served to protect the dancer and elicit a blessing.38Devotion to the Afranong, or distinguished ancestors, was a focal point of Mbembe spiritual life and the likely subject of its artistic representations.39 Two complete examples of Mbembe ikoro now preserved in Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum were collected in 1907 in the cross River region by the German ethnologist Max von Stefenelli.40 Radiocarbon dating of one of those ikoro, originally from the Abiakuri settlement, indicates that it is between four and five hundred years old (Figure 8). This massive piece, which weighs about a ton and measures nearly eleven feet in length, is highly weathered, so that the iconographic details of the figurative elements have been significantly obscured. The exposed grain of the log from which it was carved is horizontally oriented as in the case of the Seated Figure on view at the louvre (Figure 6). Continuous with the cylindrical drum vessel are platform extensions at either end. At one extreme they support a seated figure holding his arms to his sides and facing the drum body, and at the other a figure is seated with his back flush with the drum chamber. That slightly less eroded figure holds a drinking vessel in his right hand and an unidentifiable object in the other, his knees bent with feet firmly planted. The other Berlin ikoro is a nineteenth-century example from a settlement downstream from Abiakuri (Figure 9). One end of that work features a single seated male figure wielding in his right hand a bifurcated knife once used in warfare and in the left a trophy head. At the time of its collection, it was said to have been carved between sixty and eighty years earlier. This more recent work retains on its surface a great deal of black and white pigments as well as carved details such as bracelets and a distinctive hat.By the beginning of the twentieth century, when those works left the region, it appears that their use had largely been abandoned. A transitional state in which such artifacts remained physically present but were viewed as anachronisms is reflected in Partridge’s 1905 account: “The next morning we called at Ikorana, a place on the left bank, twenty-six miles above Itu, which has also long been under missionary influence. . . . The local jujus are quite neglected, and my attempts to gain information about them met with a ‘we have advanced beyond all that’ sort of reply. A huge wooden dug-out drum lay decaying in the bushes, and the highly-cultured children from the school watched with contemptuous interest in my examination of it.”41 Partridge photographed the drums he saw outside association houses in the villages of Ogada (Figure 12) and Avonum (Figure 13).12. “Totem-pole” and drum, Ogada. From Partridge 1905, p. 220, fig. 5213. Drum at Avonum; interpreter Jumbo and Constable Chuku. From Partridge 1905, p. 216, fig. 51Most of the now-independent seated figures attributed to Mbembe artists that are preserved in western collections appear to be fragments originally part of monumental ceremonial drums (Figures 1a, 6, 10, 11a, 14–20). This is evident in traces of the platforms, part of the ikoro structure, that remain at the base of these figures. The weathering of the contours of those breaks suggests that the separation occurred some time ago and that the figures remained in their communities long after they became detached. These regal figures are physically powerful yet serene in a posture of straight back, bent elbows and knees, arms extended so that each hand rests on its corresponding knee. Four of them hold children. Given the scale of the figures, the original instruments must have been especially impressive. It is possible that the solid figures were preserved as precious creations in their own right once the hollowed instrument, which was the structurally most vulnerable section, rotted away.14. Seated Female Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 32⅜ in. (82.1 cm). Private collection, courtesy of Entwistle, London. Photo by Roger Asselberghs (Studio Dehaen), courtesy Bernard de Grunne Archive15. Seated Female Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, 32¼ x 21¼ in. (82 × 54 cm). Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Beyeler collection. Photograph: Robert Bayer, Basel16. Seated Female Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 28 in. (71 cm). Private collection, Paris. Photograph: © Chantal Casanova17. Seated Female Figure (formerly Maternity Figure: Seated Mother and Child). Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 29½ in. (75 cm). Private collection, Paris. Photograph: © Dominique Cohas18. Seated Female Figure. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 30⅜ in. (77 cm). Collection Liliane and Michel Durand-Dessert, Paris. Photograph: © Hughes Dubois19. Maternity Figure: Seated Mother and Child. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 34⅞ in. (88.5 cm). Private collection. Photograph: © BAMW Photography20. Maternity Figure: Seated Mother and Child. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 37 in. (94 cm). Leloup Collection, Paris. Photograph: © Hughes DuboisMbembe Portraits In CourageIn contrast to the tranquil demeanor of these works, several other figures burst with vitality and may constitute another genre within the Mbembe corpus. In her final exchange with Traoré, Kamer received information concerning oral traditions relating to three of the male figures (two freestanding and one seated), which suggested that those works commemorate specific leaders and may be independent sculptures (Figures 21–23). Following successful wars and the founding of new villages, leaders were said to have had themselves depicted in a sculpture. Reportedly carved seventeen years before its subject’s death, the massive standing male figure holding in his left hand a trophy head that is larger than his own was identified as Appia (ca. 1529–1596), a great chief and founder of the village named after him (Appia Koum) (Figure 21). According to that tradition, Appia’s sculptural tribute was positioned at his burial site in the center of the community adjacent to the chief’s residence and was the focus of annual celebrations that kept his memory alive. The figure’s clenched, bared teeth, broad squared torso, and muscular rounded buttocks combined with the fractured surface of the wood’s grain define a formidable and brutal character.21. Standing Figure with Trophy Head Identified as Chief Appia. Mbembe peoples; Ewayon̆ River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria, 17th–18th century. Wood, H. 35 in.