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ART on View 96 in which such works remained very much physically present but viewed as anachronisms is reflected in Charles Partridge’s 1905 observations: The next morning we called at Ikorana, a place on the left bank, twenty-six miles above Itu, which has also long been under missionary influence. … The local jujus are quite neglected, and my attempts to gain information about them met with a “we have advanced beyond that” sort of reply. A huge wooden dug-out drum lay decaying in the bushes, and the highly cultured children from the school watched with contemptuous interest in my examination of it (Partridge 1905: 77). Given this context and the information Traoré provided about the works he procured for Leloup, these sculptures were most likely the solid figurative elements of ikoro that survived the decay of the instrument’s hollowed center. In view of the scale of these fragments, the complete instruments they enhanced must have been especially impressive. Preserved as precious in their own right, some of these seem to have had a second life as commemorative figures associated with important individuals, a fact that Traoré confirmed by asserting that it was necessary for him to obtain the consent of the community in order to acquire the damaged figurative sculptures that survived. Warriors Herbert Cole and Chika Aniakor have noted that warriors responded to their community’s call to arms by presenting the ikoro with a trophy head upon their return from battle (Cole and Aniakor 1984: 87). According to Traoré’s source, biannual celebrations in front of the sanctuary featured dances to songs devoted to martial prowess. In Mbembe society, all men belonged to multiple structured associations that crossed kinship lines and played a role in governance. They constituted an executive branch within the village and maintained a shrine outside its confines in the bush (Harris 1984: 61). The popularity of such groups was constantly shifting to allow for the adoption of new ones (Harris 1965: 12). Among the most influential of these was Eberambit, the preeminent warriors’ association, whose entry required not only the payment of a fee but evidence of martial prowess that was demonstrated through the presentation of an enemy’s head (Harris 1984: 62). In her final exchange with Traoré, Leloup received information concerning oral traditions relating to three of the male figures (two freestanding and one seated). These accounts suggest that those works that burst with vitality may have been portraits commemorating the courage of significantly obscured. The exposed grain of the log from which it was carved is horizontally oriented, as is that of the seated figure in the Quai Branly collection. Continuous with the cylindrical drum vessel are platform extensions at either end. At one extreme these support a seated figure holding its arms to its sides, one of which faces the drum body, and at the other a figure is seated with its back flush with the wall of the drum chamber. The latter figure, which is slightly less eroded, holds a drinking vessel in his right hand and an unidentifiable object in the other, his FIG. 9 (left): Seated male figure with trophy head identified as Chief Mabana. Mbembe, Ewayon River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria. 18th century. Provenance: O. Traoré, Lomé, Togo; Hélène Kamer, Paris, 1973– 1995; purchased by the lender in 1995. Wood. H: 64.5 cm. Horstmann Collection, Zug, Switzerland. Photo: © Hughes Dubois. FIG. 10 (below): Standing male figure identified as Chief N’Ko. Mbembe, Ewayon River region, Cross River Province, Nigeria. 17th– 18th century. Provenance: O. Traoré, Lomé, Togo; Hélène Kamer, Paris, 1973; Marie-Catherine Daffos and Jean- Luc Estournel, Paris, until 1989; Werner Muensterberger, New York, 1989–2012; (Sotheby’s, New York, May 11, 2012, lot 63). Wood. H: 108 cm. Private collection. Photograph: © Jon Lam/Sotheby’s. knees bent with feet firmly planted. The other Berlin ikoro is from a settlement downstream from Abiakuri (fig. 7). One end of it features a single seated male figure with both arms extended brandishing a bifurcated knife once used in warfare in his right hand and a trophy head in the left. Significantly less weathered than the other, at the time of its collection it was said to have been carved between sixty and eighty years earlier. By the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Berlin drums left the region, it appears they were no longer in use and had largely been abandoned. A transitional state


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