Figure

Replete with open mouths, pointed teeth and angled arms, the figures are highly expressive. Both figures are naked, with pronounced sexual characteristics. Parts of the body are painted with black paint. The rows of dots and strokes, especially on the face, suggest a reproduction of tattooing. Origin and function of the figures remain a mystery. They arrived at the museum in 1899 together with an extensive collection belonging to a Captain Heldt, who commanded ships of the Woermann line in the late-19th and early-20th century and clearly collected ethnographica as a sideline as well. An inventory entry made in the 1940s states Bafurunga, Congo as the ethnos of origin. This probably refers to the Bafourou (Bafuru, Afuru), a Bantu people who lived mainly from fishing along the Sangha, a right tributary of the Congo in the border region between Cameroon and Congo. They became famous for their resistance to the expedition of Count Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza in 1877/78. This pair of figures was probably carved for sale to Europeans. Author: Eva Gerhards, Translation: Timothy Connell