FEATURE 116 begang) in Nweh, the Bangwa language, is variously translated as “witch,” “ghost,” or “animal.”37 This quality of having a double in animal form (pi) is one manifestation of ke.38 While such “witchcraft” could be mustered for both benevolent and malevolent purposes, the chief and the members of his cult association—in this case the night society—were expected to act on behalf of the community when their transformed egos were migrating through the night sky or roaming the wilderness of the bush. They protected the village because they were charged with being benevolent sorcerers. This belief structure was not entirely limited to the Grasslands. The Banyang, who dwell in the neighboring forest, have concepts about were-animals similar to those of the Bamileke groups.39 The beaded leopard skin in the FAMSF collection can be regarded as an embodiment of the paradox of Bamileke leaders being at once paladins and predators. Possibly a unique survivor of its type, it simultaneously represents the transformative were-nature of the king, his political power, and his worldly wealth. Whether used in a royal prestige display as observed in the early twentieth century, the throne panoply of the fon, or in the context of the masked performances of the kuosi, this is an important element of the regalia that long ago was created to uphold the status and the office of a Grasslands ruler. NOTES 1. Cf. Jonathan Fogel, unpublished manuscript describing this object, 2014. Special thanks to him for his help in preparing this essay. 2. Cf. Tamara Northern, The Sign of the Leopard. Beaded Art of Cameroon. Exh. Cat., The William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 1975, p. 128 #O & p. 127 #K. 3. Raymond Lecoq, Les Bamileke (Une civilization africaine), Editions africaines, Paris, 1953, p. 113. 4. Robert Brain provides an account of a performance of the elephant association where he mentioned that the masked figures’ feet were bare, and their legs appeared bright red with camwood below the indigo robes made of “royal” cloth. Robert Brain and Adam Pollock, Bangwa Funerary Sculpture, The University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 1971, p. 100ff. 5. Catalog, Sotheby’s Paris, 11 June 2008, Lot 140. 6. Sotheby’s personal communication via email, 1/22/2014. 7. F. Clement C. Egerton, African Majesty. A Record of Refuge at the Court of the King of Banganté in the French Cameroons, London, 1938, p. 267, 268. 8. Egerton, op. cit., p. 268. 9. This may be a posed situation. 10. Northern, op. cit., p. 23. 11. Cf. Northern, op. cit., p. 117. 12. “Chameleons have strong connotations of witchcraft in the Grassfields Grasslands; their ability to change color and to blend into the background are seen as akin to the capacity of witches to transform themselves into animals at night. This power, known as finte in Bamenda is FIG. 15: “Dance of the Leopard Killer, Banganté.” Photo: F. C. C. Egerton, 1936. From Egerton, African Majesty, pl. 67.
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