Figure of King Bay Akiy

Hail, the conquering Hero!

These two works are power—in all of its complicated nuances—personified. The mask, which might have accompanied or stood in for a royal presence in performance, grips the viewer with deep, yellow eyes. The eyes of this mask are covered with silk taken from spider egg sacs or the lining of the nest of the ground-dwelling tarantula. Ground spiders are used by specialists in divination practices in the Cameroon Grassfields region as a way of gaining access to divine knowledge.
This mask may, however, merely serve as a herald for the true power of its respective kingdom, embodied here by the animated yet ambiguous figure at the center of Heroes’ ancestral grove. This masterpiece has a particularly emotional expression that may be associated with the personal style of Bvu Kwam, an early 19th-century master sculptor working in the Grassfields region. According to one field informant, the figure is of King Bay Akiy, the fourth ruler of the Isu kingdom, who reigned in the late 18th century.
Depicted returning from victory over the Nshe, a neighboring group, he is seated on a dangerous animal, probably a leopard, and holds a weapon . . . and a human head. This pose relates to a regional tradition of representing personal achievement, though the identity of the head itself is uncertain. The head could belong to a defeated enemy, or it could be the revered skull of a local ancestor.
The openness of that final, central symbol remains part of a larger set of unresolved questions that revolve around this incredible figure. Yet, even as he stands now, this image of King Bay Akiy, with two potential readings, may speak to some of the central ambivalences of power—namely, that to hold authority successfully over life and death requires the capacity for considerable piety and reflection as well.