Fang Bwiti Fetish Figure

A wiry figure with outstretched arms balances on four curly feet.

This Bwiti fetish figure is Fang, from Cameroon, Central Africa, and dates to the 20th century. It is twine, leather, iron & brass. The Fang are a people of Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, known for their ancestral reliquary figures and for sculpture in wood and metal. A small, standing figure with a round head, flat outstretched arms ending in hooks, and a wrapped, banded torso. The lower half widens into a rounded base with four curled legs, and the surface is dark and rusty. It is 5.5 inches wide, 4.5 deep and 9 high.

A cheerful oddity that stands on its own four feet.