CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Bamileke Art
Art of the Bamileke chiefdoms of Cameroon's Grassfields: beaded regalia, elephant masks, carved palace posts and royal cloth.
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About
The Bamileke live in the highland Grassfields of western Cameroon, organised into dozens of chiefdoms, each headed by a fon or chief. Their art centres on the palace and on the associations that surround the ruler, and much of it was made to display rank at public dances and funerals.
Beadwork is the signature. Royal stools, calabashes and figures are covered in imported glass beads and cowrie shells, laid in bold triangles and zigzags of blue, red, white and black. Members of the Kuosi society dance in elephant masks of beaded cloth, with round ears and long panels hanging at front and back. Wood carving is equally forceful: helmet masks associated with the Batcham chiefdom swell into huge arched forms above puffed cheeks, and palace compounds had posts and door frames carved with stacked figures, leopards and spiders. Ndop cloth, dyed indigo with stitched resist patterns, is hung and worn on royal occasions.
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