Reliquary guardian figure (eyema-o-byeri)

In the belief that skulls and certain bones of great men retained their supernatural powers after death, the Fang, Kota, Sango, and Tsogo peoples venerated and preserved such remains. "Great men" included the founder of the lineage and successive lineages, clan or family heads, and extraordinary women who were believed to have supernatural abilities or who bore numerous healthy children. The relics, along with precious beads, potent substances with magical properties (medicine), and other spiritually charged objects were kept in containers made of bark or woven plant fibers. A post projecting from a carved guardian figure fastened it to the lid of the bark reliquary box (fig. 45), which was kept in special shelters or repositories. The sculpted guardians protected the relics from malicious humans and evil spirits and served as a point of contact between the ancestral relics and designated family members.

This reliquary guardian is attributed to a master sculptor who lived on the upper Ntem River in northern Gabon and was active between about 1800 and 1860.(17) The sculptor's style is distinguished by the figure's short, muscular body with raised pectorals above a barrel-shaped abdomen, arms held close to its sides, and hands joined at the base of the chest.(18)
Deep incised lines delineate the fingers, lattice scarification on a band that terminates just above the enormous navel adorns the abdomen, and vertical incised lines travel the length of the back. The figure, with rounded thighs and thick calves, is carved in a seated position. Its massive head has a high, rounded forehead, arched brows above squinting eyes pierced with metal, and a pouting mouth with exposed teeth. Its hair is styled into three large triangular plaits and a "duck tail" that replicate a man's nlo-o-ngo hairstyle, which was still fashionable in the twentieth century. A headband with pompoms covers its ears. Feathers affixed to the headdress by metallic chains, earrings, iron or copper necklaces and bracelets, and glass beads originally adorned the figure.(19) The feet have broken off.

Reliquary guardian figures were also used as puppets in a ritual called mélan, a rite of appeasement. During the course of their initiation into adulthood, boys learned about the history of their people, which is marked by migrations and the need for portable objects, including the reliquaries. The practice of making reliquaries for ancestor worship ceased in the early twentieth century when the French colonial government banned the reliquaries and their priests.

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 68, pp. 198-199.
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NOTES:

17. Perrois, in Grunne, Bernard de. Masterhands: Afrikaanse beeldhouwers in de kijker / Mains de Maîtres: À la decouverte des sculpteurs d’Afrique. Brussels: BBL cultuurcentrum, 2001. pp. 121-139, 137, cat. no. 34.

idem, in Christie’s. The Russel B. Aitken Collection of African, American Indian and Oceanic Art. Auction catalogue. April 3, 2003. New York: Christie’s. pp. 46-48.

18. Other examples are found in the collections of the Léonce Pierre Guerre Collection, Marseille, France, and the Seattle Art Museum.

See also LaGamma, Alisa, ed. Eternal Ancestors: The Art of the Central African Reliquary. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007. pp. 164-170.

19. Perrois, in Grunne, 2001. p. 123, fig. 14.