Tikar mask from the Cameroon

These represent idealised portraits of real ancestors, probably royal dignitaries, showing  the facial scarifications and complex  hair styling typical of  N’kang masks which are usually worn on occasions such as funerals or to celebrate the harvest.  These particular masks came from Cameroon via Zimbabwe and show features of Tikar and Fang culture.  Both are groups to be found in the grassland areas of Cameroon.  There is a very fine copper filigree defining the facial scarifications and the wood is dark in colour but light in weight and therefore probably Kola wood.

The Tikar people currently number about 250,000 who speak different languages but claim a common ancestry.  At one point there were thought  to be up to 3 million and reached a high level of cultural sophistication but they suffered terribly from slave raiding and other depredations.  One local academic in Oxford has suggested to me that the notion of a single Tikar people might be a misconception.   The Pitt Rivers museum seems to hold nothing of significance from this culture though the cultures slightly futher to the north in Nigeria and Benin are well represented.

A web search doesn’t throw up a lot of information about the culture of the Tikar but the price of these masks in the USA defies belief.  I’ve seen many of these masks made to order in South Africa where there is a thriving industry in “replicating” (as opposed to forging) African masks.  Even experts can be fooled by these very convincing copies.  We sell these masks at Pula because they are beautiful and full of mystery but we make no claims about their age or provenance.

Pula January 2009

Useful references

Jean Baptiste Bacquart  The Tribal arts of Africa.  Thames and Hudson