THE FANG PEOPLE

Young Fang from Oweng

The as so called « FANG PEOPLE  » in geographic litterature and ethnographic are a huge villager community mosaic which are set up since many century in a large part of the atlantic equatorial Africa which includes : -The South Cameroun , -The North-west of Congo , -The continental equatorial guinee and almost -All the North of Gabon .

AREAS OF FANG PEOPLE

This region of huge humid forest ,with many typical equatorial climat , is a tableland with many rivers making the area impossible for navigation .

The Lobe falls in Cameroun

The highland covered by jungle,wich makes the communication impossible was therefore the scene of various villages movement.

The African Equatorial forest .

Many explorators and missionary that « discover » Fang people have overestimate their numbers due to the fact that villages were concentrated in certain areas making illusion of a huge number of inhabitants.

Explorators in Africa

Accomodation is disperse in inhabilitng group including more of one lignage ; elementary part of patriarchal family . In fact , the whole Fang people are probably Savana's people of middle Cameroun region and borders of the central Africa. They become forest people after varios social and historical pressure .

Fang inhabiting group

The Fang people are also known as pangwe, pahouin , pamues according to the nationaly of colonizer (French, Deutsch, Spanish ) . The are also called Beti in Cameroun from which the name Fang-Beti.

The whole Fang people a lignager anustors worship, « The Byeri » , in order to be able to not only protect themselves against deceased but also to ask for their help in their daily life. This family worship is not incompatible with other religious, that's why there is the Fang religious universe ; all those religious coexist such as Ngui , So , Ngon-Ntang which are more collective.

Byeri shrine statue

The Byeri therefore gave rise to a remarqueble wood carvingactivity. Other rituals such as Ngui , So have produced monumental anthropomorph representation in clay whence only few records pictures exist due to the fact that they were not wellconserved.

Every lignage or piece of lignage set out , at the beginning of the XXth century,one or many statuettes in wood representing in a symbolic and generic way deceased ancestor. These ancestors were present inside the patriarchal family through relic reverently well preserved inside boxes or beaten bark.

Relic boxes

Those shrine, sort of portable monument , was kept at the dark corner of the main apartment of the house . Sometimes, the lignage deceased are burried in the house space , so that nobody can cut off any bones in other of witchcraft praticing against family members.

The shrine are essentially skull splinter, sometimes the entire skull, jaw , tooth , small bones. They are objet to an ordinary worship which consist of regular libation for propitiatory aim and living protection .

Queen mother

Byeri is also used for therapeutic rituals and especially for young boys initiation , during the so big feast. Statuette are therefore reparate to relic in order to serves as rituals puppet during theatrical manifestation, during which candidates, dope and put in condition , have to die as a child and born as man or adult. It's stem from an hallucination which permit them to set in touch with their ancestor and especially to know their new names that candidates have the disclosure of the role of relic and statuettes.

Fang mortar of ritual usage

The Byeri ritual statutory of Fang can be divided or grouped in two great stylistic tendencies, which are different from the morphological and decoration point of view. In the North many sub styles have a volumetric tendency of form lengthening ; In the South, many others show more rounded and massive volume.

NORTH FANG STYLE :

Byeri shrine statue : Ngoumba Sub-style (towards Lolodorf ;South Cameroon)

With streamlined but awkwand with systematic utilisation of metalic block as decoration element (iron,brass ) on the face, thorax ,shoulers .

BYERI SHRINE STATUE :

Mabea Sub-style (towards Kribi near the coast ;South Cameroun )

With more realistic building, especially for the face and superior part of the body

BYERI SHRINE STATUE :

Ntoumou Sub-style ( faw south Cameroon, north-East of Congo, north-East of Equatorial Guinee, North of Gabon )

With most streamlined , slim leg, spender main stem, more or less cylindric but widen at the level of the stomach which is generally well rounded with an ombilicus ; a huge mouth, without chin . The headdress with central loop, sometimes thin towards the back , is particularly typical .

THE FANG SOUTH STYLE

Byeri shrine statuary

Beti Sub-style

With thick-set and rounded form and volum in a whole massive scheme ,with a dispropotionaly big head, short main stem and powerful legs . The Beti working ,with a considerable variable,those of the Mvaï with a very impressive head,at hree loop cap , gives a cohesion where full volums and curvered surfaces dominante.

THE MASK :

A Ngui mask

Fang people has shaped many masks for ritual reasons ; But there exist only few of them in collection or museum. The reason of this scarceness is the secret character of this objet in the XIXth century with the importance of initiation rite.

A Ngui mask

Few older Ngui masks are knowned , many of them have probably disappear with the influence of christians missionaries.

Ngon - Ntang mask

The Ngon -Ntang mask are oldest, with one or many flat and circular faces decorate with kaolin . Ngon-Ntang means « the white woman » in relation with certain mythic elements raising the hereafter living.