Chamba anthropomorphic figure - Lot 172

Lot n° 172
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Estimation :
50 - 100 EUR
Chamba anthropomorphic figure - Lot 172
Chamba anthropomorphic figure Nigeria Carved wood Late 20th century Height: 42 cm The ethnic term "Chamba" has its roots in the names Sama in the Daka language and Samba in the Leko language. These two distinct languages, associated respectively with the west and east, were separated separated by the majestic Alantika Mountains on the border between Nigeria and Cameroon. This linguistic link testified to the cultural richness and geographical diversity of the Chamba peoples. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Fulani jihad and the creation of the Emirate of Adamawa prompted several eastern Chamba Leko groups to migrate far from their homelands, settling south of the Bénoué river of the Bénoué river and in the Bamenda Grassfields of north-western Cameroon. Within a limited corpus, the Chamba figurines remain enigmatic as to their precise use reflecting a sculpted and masked production that remains largely unknown. Some suggest that they were occasionally planted in pairs in cultivated soils for for protective purposes. They also play an intercessory role between the living and the and the world beyond, where spirits, both unpredictable and sources of reincarnation are honored through masks and statues used in rituals of healing and protection. protection. This effigy, whose signs of desiccation in the wood bear witness to its age, takes the classic form of a trunk. the classical form of a cylindrical trunk on which are carved long, slender, truncated arms whose points of rupture contribute to the dynamism of the composition. The round head, topped by a flared crest, is marked by two small pierced eyes and a wide, half-open mouth. The face is framed by two large circular ears. The whole piece probably rested on a hemispherical base, now lost to time and use. use.
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