Bamum fon (king) Njoya, sat on his mandu yenu throne.(1912)
Photographer: Marie-Pauline Thorbecke
Source: Bildarchiv der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft
We all appreciate the beauty of classic art from Africa but we sometimes miss the connection between the objects and their cultural setting. Fortunately for us, a number of ethnographers, anthropologists and adventurers have captured the masquerades, royal ceremonies and palace scenes of Cameroon. See the prestige arts of Cameroon come to life in their natural palatial settings in this first set of field photographs.
Bamum fon (king) Njoya, sat on his mandu yenu throne.
Babungo fon Zake with his wives holding a nka’a ndü palm-wine beaded calabash, his ndu nyiet drinking horn and his ki smoking pipe.
Bamum princes, Nzikam and Mfo-Rifum, sons of fon Njoya standing next to a drum.
Enthronement of Kom fon Jinabo II, with him wearing his ashetu prestige cap. Three mbang royal ancestor figures representing the fon, the Queen mother, and the fon's first wife were present during the coronation of the fon.
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