HISTOIRE d’’objet 142 FIG. 3 (above): Jean Marie Mougangi and a family of statues, ghéonga, in the Tsogho village of Evounta. Photo by Dr. Jean-Claude Andrault, 1962. tary research by A. Walker suggests Bakota origin. The Masango call it munóngi-mbumba, a name used to designate all fi gures with a long neck. Ritual objects may have been concealed beneath the fi ber skirt.1 My satisfaction lasted only a fl eeting moment. When I read the caption I realized that this object had been given by the monsignor to the Musée d’Ethnographie du Trocadéro in 1934. As he had described the object carefully, it was an easy matter for me to consult the website of the Musée du Quai Branly and see that it was not listed there as part of that institution’s collection. Additional research at the MQB’s very welcoming archives department turned up an old phototation on page 69. My statue was there, smiling at me from the middle of a plate of drawings of sculptures (fi g. 4). There was no doubt—the drawings by co-author Roger Sillans strongly resembled my fi gure. Even the specifi c facial traits were faithfully reproduced and the same umbilical cavity was visible above the edge of a raffi a skirt covering the reliquary guardian’s lower limbs. My excitement was further amplifi ed when, upon reading the text, I noted that Raponda-Walker confi rmed my opinion that the attribution of the work to the Tsogho was far from an obvious one. Male fi gure, painted red, called motupókó, apparently of Tsogho origin although complemen-
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