102
compound head, houses for wives and children on
either side, and perhaps a meeting house or courtyard
area in the middle, was replicated by chiefs
and, on a much more modest scale, by notables and
commoners.40
The chief of Azi, whose name was Fontem Assunganyi
(c. 1870–1951) of the Bangwa kingdom
of Lebang (fi g. 27), appeared soon thereafter.
Conrau describes him as twenty-eight to thirty
years old,41 with an intelligent face, attractive
hands and feet, and a cheerful disposition. When
he took his place on a throne, Conrau requested
a seat as well. The chief’s servants gave him an
elaborate pipe, the stem of which was decorated
FIG. 14 (left):
Male fi gure on a post.
Bangwa, Cameroon.
19th century.
Wood. H: 97 cm.
Collected by Gustav Conrau, 1898
or 1899.
Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin,
inv. III C 10546.
Photo: Martin Franken,
© Ethnologisches Museum der
Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin -
Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
FIG. 16 (right):
Although captioned “Graf
Pückler (x), Hetebrügge,
Hauptman Ramsay, der
Hauptling von Bali,” this
photo appears to show,
from left to right, Gustav
Conrau, an unidentifi ed
fi gure, Eugen Zintgraff,
and Galega I, fon of
Bali, western Bamenda,
Cameroon. If this
identifi cation is correct, the
photo dates from around
1896.
From Globus, 85, 1904, p. 201,
fi g. 6.
with fi ne beadwork, and its cast brass elephant
head bowl had four tusks. He explained to Conrau
that only he was allowed to have an elephant
head with four tusks. The audience applauded.
Conrau asked if he might have a pipe similar to
this example. The chief replied that he could have
the one he was smoking and that he would have
a new one made for himself. Conrau was aware
that he would now be obliged to offer a correspondingly
important gift in return, as he wrote
to von Luschan on February 18, 1899.42 Conrau
subsequently sent this beautiful pipe to von Luschan,
and it remains in the Berlin ethnological
collection today (fi g. 29). He wrote: “The chief
also promised me he would make many things
for me (seats, etc.), if I would provide him with
the beads, which he could not obtain in Cameroon.”
43 The beads the chief sought were to be of
the same type as those on his pipe stem, which
is to say very fi ne glass beads. It became known
FIG. 15 (below):
Eugen Zintgraff, c. 1899.
Engraving from Jahrbuch der
Berliner Morgenzeitung, Kalender
1899, p. 287.