Additional information
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Western Bamileke-Bangwa Night Society Mask
According to the late Amadou Njoya, who acquired an extensive ensemble of closely related masks in the Western Grassfields, such works are associated with the Bamileke Night Society. This social order plays an important role in undergirding the local Fon’s powers. Through meetings and collectively determined plans of action, they support their king and shape his rule. Njoya was a dealer based in Foumban, but he was also a passionate student of the art of Cameroon, having been raised in the household of a dealer, his father Mama Nsangou Awalu, himself the child of a line of Bamum blacksmiths who instilled in their descendants both knowledge of culture and a reverence for craft. In a 2016 exhibition at the Queensboro Community College in Bayside, New York, Njoya shared works from his vast collection of Cameroon traditional sculpture, including an extensive ensemble of Night Society makes the likes of which had rarely been seen before outside of the Grassfields. About these masks Njoya wrote the following in the accompanying show catalog, a book that has yet to make it to press: “Each Night Society owns several masks that represent the powers of the group. Since the Societies enforce order and convict wrongdoers, their masks are deliberately carved to emanate authority…I believe the peace and progress come with order, so I have a strong fascination with the Night Society masks… If I take one out [of my collection] I feel a loss.” This particular mask is almost certainly by the same hand as several that Njoya shared with the public in his 2016 exhibition, although to my knowledge it never belonged to him. Such masks, Njoya noted, were danced in ensembles during funerary rites. Most have open mouths, which Njoya insisted were representations of emotive, singing masks. Indeed, ceremonies of the Night Socities are called “cries.” Night Society masquerades are performed across the Bamileke region, among the Bangwa, Banjoun, Bamenam, Bangate and Batoufam.
12″
