During the 18th -19th centuries the Fang
migrated from the northwest and today are
scattered across Cameroon, Guinea and Gabon.
Their social structure is based on the clan and
family. Cohesion among the eighty or so Fang
clans is maintained through powerful religious
and judiciary societies called the So and Ngil.
This mask expresses like no other mask of its
kind the spirit of Fang art implying the religious
spirit and the brutal and obscure power, the very
soul of he equatorial forest. Taking into account
all Fang art, even considering primitive art as a
whole, the Ngil masks are, without any doubt
among the rarest and the most coveted. Their
rarity is to be seen in direct relation to the myth
itself and their forms bordering universal
concerns.
The Ngil (sometimes referred to as the gorilla
mask) masks were worn by members of a male
society of the same name during the initiation of
new members and the persecution of wrong-
doers. Masqueraders, clad in raffia costumes and
attended by helpers, would materialize in the
village after dark, illuminated by flickering
torchlight. Fang masks, such as those worn by
itinerant troubadours and for hunting and
punishing sorcerers,
are painted white with facial features often
outlined in black. Typical are large, elongated
masks covered with kaolin and featuring a face
that was usually heart-shaped with a long, fine
nose. The Ngil society disappeared with the
beginning of the colonization of Gabon in the
early 1930's.
Masks like this light mask represented the spirit
of an ancestor and was used for social control by
Ngil, the judiciary association. The facial
markings, abstract features and strong elegant
lines are typical.
- (PF.1501dc)
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