Cameroon Art of the Kings
By Andreas Schiendorfer 07.04.2008
"Cameroon - Art of the Kings," an exhibition at the Rietberg
Museum in Zurich, is devoted to the culture of the grasslands of northwest
Cameroon. What it also shows is the innovative vitality that Africa continues to
derive from its tradition
 Workshop
of the Kom region, 19th/20th century
Wood, sheet copper, remains of human hair, H 40 cm
Musée du quai Branly Paris
Photo: Patrick Gries
Lost in thought, a man wearing a turban and sunglasses stands in front of a
bead-studded throne. His brightly colored robes look especially magnificent set
off against his dark skin. Suddenly, with tears in his eyes, he sits down on the
throne! As untoward as this might seem in a museum setting, Sultan Ibrahim
Mbombo Njoya is in fact its legitimate occupant, for not only is he the
nineteenth King of Bamoun, but the throne on which he is now sitting once
belonged to his grandfather. Back home, they call it mandu yenu; yet here in
Zurich is the first time the King has seen it in real life - almost one hundred
years to the day after his ancestor King Njoya made a present of it to Kaiser
Wilhelm of Germany in February 1908.
"Live" Exhibits Cameroon art of the Kings
When past and present meet: King Njoya sitting on the throne
that his grandfather gave to the German Kaiser in 1908.
Photo: Rietberg Museum
Back in Fumban, King Mbombo Njoya uses exactly the same throne. The times
have become blurred, although time itself has certainly not stood still.
Continuing his grandfather's work, the reigning monarch is endeavoring to find a
purposeful way of preserving his people's traditions in a modern context. Which
is why he agreed to provide Lorenz Homberger, the curator of this exhibition,
with a number of "live" artifacts from the palace treasures. The most
splendid of these is a headdress depicting a warrior riding on a leopard, which
is still used at the ceremony to inaugurate the commander-in-chief of the army -
most recently four years ago. Yet a photograph taken by the Basler Mission
proves that the headdress was in use as long ago as 1912. The headdress is
studded all over with beads from Venice and Bohemia, a technique that the
craftsmen at the royal courts of the grasslands mastered to perfection.
King Njoya Lives in Two Worlds
So is this just folklore for tourists? No, it is not. Tradition remains an
integral part of life, which in this region, as elsewhere in West Africa, is
still very much centered on the clan or tribe. At the head of the village is the
Fon, a chief whose authority is exceeded only by that of the king himself. This
is the structure that shapes everyday life, even if it has since been overlaid
by the centralist state that won its independence in 1960/61.
Sultan Mbombo Njoya lives in both worlds, being both a figure of authority
for the 50,000 inhabitants of Fumban and a government minister in the capital of
Yaoundé, with its population of more than a million. He has also made a name
for himself outside his country, not least as President of the Cameroon Football
Association, whose "untamable lions" rank among the most successful
teams in Africa. When the King attended the World Economic Forum in Davos in
late January, therefore, he was received by no less a person than FIFA President
Joseph Blatter.
1896 Sees the Invention of a New Script
King Nyoja sets great store by education and so has become a patron of schools,
including a number of Shü-Mom schools. "In 1896, my grandfather was
inspired in a dream to invent his own script," he explains. "He spent
the next 20 years refining it and reducing the number of characters from 500 to
80." Something similar also applies, incidentally, to Mandé in Liberia.
Head crest
Master of Bamendjo,
c. 1900
Wood, H 67 cm
Rietberg Museum Zurich
Gift of Eduard von der Heydt
Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger
Education as Active Counter-Colonialism
The French, who together with the British inherited the German colony of Kamerun
after World War I, not only sent King Njoya into exile but tried to suppress his
script and language as well. "The 48 schools founded by Njoya," as one
of today's teachers puts it, were "nothing less than a native
counter-colonialist movement." At least Njoya's museum survived, although
his grandson admits with a hint of resignation that "it is no longer in the
best condition. I'm planning a new Musée des Rois Bamoun, which would be
important for our identity. At present, I'm still looking for sponsors..."
Artistic Value for a Long Time Overlooked
 Commemorative figure,
lefem
Bamileke workshop of the Bangwa region, 19th century
Wood, H 81 cm
Private collection
Photo: H Dubois
Yet the main concern of the exhibition at the Rietberg Museum is art - art from
the grasslands of Cameroon, which now fetches high prices at auctions. For
several decades, however, the realistically conceived "moving" figures
created by the artists of Cameroon were thought not to merit serious
consideration, as this quote from a work on art history from the year 1938 makes
clear: "The art of sculpture in northwest Cameroon comprises relatively few
free-standing figures, but all kinds of masks and a huge number of items of
everyday use - stools, dishes, doorposts, window frames and such like - with
ornamental figure carvings. The works are crafted in an unmistakably peasant
style, with realistic depictions of great vitality, although of little artistic
value on the whole."
Appreciation by the Avant-Garde
 Figure of a queen
Female commemorative figure
Master of the Bangwa region, 19th century
Wood, H 82 cm
Musée Dapper Paris
Purchased from Gustav Conrau in 1899
Photo: H Dubois
Very few of the artists themselves were aware of how unique their art was, or of
the superior vitality of the artists from the grasslands, to which not just
Bamoun, but Bamileke and the people of the northwest province also belonged. Yet
anyone who has seen such superb works of art as the memorial figures "The
Thinker" and "The Queen" by the Master of the Bangwa region will
have no trouble understanding what it was that Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and other
artists of the group "Die Brücke" (The Bridge) found so fascinating
and inspiring about these works.
The Rietberg Museum as Bridge-Builder
The exhibition at the Rietberg Museum is itself a bridge to a new appreciation
of Africa - to a world that is neither better nor worse, but simply different
from other regions of the world and hence an enrichment for all those who come
into contact with it.
The exhibition "Cameroon – Art of the Kings" at the Rietberg Museum
in Zurich is to run until May 25, 2008
Related articles:
Museum
Rietberg Zürich | new
Rietberg museum | Cameroon
Art
Highlights
From the Paul and Clara Gebauer Collection of Cameroon Art
from the PAM Museum's permanent collection
The
Paul and Clara Gebauer Collection of Cameroon Art, one of the finest
collections of Cameroon Grasslands art in the United States, was originally
acquired by the Portland Art Museum in the early 1970s.
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