Vuvi Masks Tsogo, and the Okande. They also maintain that they are related to the Myene, whom they consider “our relatives who stayed below on the coast.” The fact that peoples of the interior trace their ancestry to areas close to the sea is frequently observed, and it corresponds to known population movements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. “Such a movement of return to the east, after having already been on the coast and coming from that direction, is alluded to in the oral traditions of the Galwa of the Myene group, and in those of the Okande of the Tsogo linguistic group” (Gaulme, 1999: 669–672). No archaeological findings have confirmed the establishment of the Vuvi in the Koulamoutou area between the Lolo and its confluent, the Wagna. According to Hubert Deschamps, cited by Kialo, oral tradition dates this to the “slave trade period.” According to Kialo, “the Vuvi count three primordial clans of female origin, and ‘symbols of social equilibrium,’ which are defined by a list of lineages that make up clans, forming something of an ‘identity card’ for their members” (Kialo, 2007: 34–35). 97 part of this work, he examines the Vuvi’s political, economic, and environmental structure and, in the second, their cultural and mystical life and their belief system. He dates their origins to some 300,000 years ago. They were established in Kegha, then Dirembo (another name for the Ogooue), then arrived in the area around the confluence of the Wagna and Lolo rivers, establishing themselves first in Mutuyiene and then Koulamoutou. Orendo Sossa was criticized by anthropologist Paulin Kialo, who in 2005 published a monograph titled Pové et forestiers face à la forêt gabonaise. Esquisse d’un anthropologie comparée de la forêt (Pove and Forest Peoples in the Gabonese Forest. Sketch of a Comparative Anthropology of the Forest). In 2007, he published Anthropologie de la forêt. Populations pové et exploitants forestiers français au Gabon (Anthropology of the Forest. Pove Populations and French Exploitation of the Forest in Gabon). Orendo Sossa’s proposed origin of the Pove appears problematic to him, and Kialo reproaches him for having used supposed Pove interpreters from Libreville, who were in fact Masango. Geographic Dispersion Paulin Kialo has compiled the most recent research on the Vuvi, who themselves recognize that they are linguistically related to the Apindji, the Eveia, the Tsimba, the FIG. 5: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Semi-hard wood with black, white, and blue pigments. H: 34 cm. Ex Josef Mueller, acquired before 1939. Musée Barbier-Mueller, inv. 1019-32. Photo © Musée Barbier-Mueller, Studio Ferrazzini Bouchet. Published: Perrois, 1985, p. 131; Hahner-Herzog et al., 1997, p. 184; Butor et al., 2005, p. 79. FIG. 6: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. H: 28 cm. Documented by Francis Mazière, mission chief for Ogooué- Congo in 1946–1947. Private collection. Photo © Hughes Dubois. Published: Rivière, 1975, p. 126; Arts d’Afrique noire, 1995, no. 94, p. 42. FIG. 7: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Wood, bark, kaolin. H: 37.5 cm. Ex Alberto Magnelli. Paris, musée national d’art moderne – centre Georges Pompidou, inv. AM1984-349. Donated by Susi Magnelli in 1984. Photo © collection centre Pompidou – RMN. All rights reserved. Published: Bourgade, 1995, p. 24; Arts d’Afrique Noire, 1995, no. 94, p. 14. FIG. 8: Mask. Vuvi, Gabon. Wood, kaolin, animal skin, vegetal fiber. H: 36 cm. Ex Hubert Goldet. Current location unknown. Image from the auction catalog La collection d’art africain d’Hubert Goldet, François Ricqlès, June 30 and July 1, 2001, lot 277. Reproduced with the kind permission of François de Ricqlès. Published: Bassani et al., 1992, p. 189; Curtil, 1992 (cover). FIG. 9 (above right): Vuvi masked dancer, reproduced in the journal Liaison, 1958, no. 61, p. 10. Scanned from a copy in the library in the Musée du Quai Branly, P1559. FIG. 10: Map of the peoples of Gabon cited in this article. After one published in Perrois (1985: 15).
I-IVCoverE_CoverF Vuvi
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