97
Dining with Kings: Ceremony and Hospitality in
the Cameroon Grassfields
Through April 8, 2018
Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles
fowler.ucla.edu
NOTES
1. Warnier’s research is centered on the Mankon Kingdom, located
in the Northwest Region, right outside of Bamenda. While
much of his terminology is specific to Mankon, the same practices
can be seen widely throughout the Northwest Region of
the Grassfields.
2. Warnier, The Pot-King: The Body and Technologies of Power.
33.
3. Warnier, 116–7.
4. Warnier, 131, 170.
5. Forni, “Containers of Life: Pottery and Social Relations in the
Grassfields (Cameroon),” 43. Of course, many other scholars
have made this same connection between pots and the human
body throughout the continent. (see Berns, “Pots as People:
Yungur Ancestral Portraits.”)
6. Forni, “Containers of Life: Pottery and Social Relations in the
Grassfields (Cameroon),” 44.
7. Mary Hastings Bradley visited Foumban from February 28 to
March 6, 1931.
8. Geary, Bamum, 23.
9. Geary, 9.
10 Early beads were imported from Italy and Bohemia (today the
Czech Republic) and Germans quickly saw the potential of importing
these as trade goods.
11. Geary, “Bamum and Tikar: Inspiration and Innovation,” 139.
12. Buffalo horn was highly prized as the buffalo is a royal animal.
Consequently, historically, all buffalo horns were the property
FIG. 12 (left):
Palm wine gourd.
Grassfields, Cameroon.
19th century.
Gourd, fabric, thread, glass beads.
Fowler Museum at UCLA; X65.5815a.
Photo: Don Cole.
FIG. 13 (above):
Drinking horn.
Bamum peoples,
Grassfields, Cameroon.
19th–early 20th century.
Dwarf buffalo horn, brass.
Fowler Museum at UCLA,
inv. X66.69a.
Photo: Don Cole.
of the king and it was his prerogative to distribute them as he
wished. Gebauer, Art of Cameroon, 215.
13. Gebauer, 98.; Notué and Triaca, Mankon: Arts, Heritage and
Culture from the Mankon Kingdom, 234.
14 Gebauer, Art of Cameroon, 98.
15. Tamara Northern notes that the small bowls with open-work
stands were made in the communities of Bamessi, Babungo,
and Babanki. Northern, Royal Art of Cameroon, 71.
16. Gebauer, Art of Cameroon, 201; Northern, The Art of Cameroon,
110
17. Personal communication, July 7, 2017, David Zemanek of Zemanek
Münster Tribal Art
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berns, Marla. “Pots as People: Yungur Ancestral Portraits.”
African Arts 23, no. 3 (1990): 50–60, 102.
Forni, Silvia. “Containers of Life: Pottery and Social Relations in
the Grassfields (Cameroon).” African Arts 40, no. 1 (2007):
42–53.
Geary, Christraud M. Bamum. Visions of Africa. Milan: 5
Continents Editions, 2011.
———. “Bamum and Tikar: Inspiration and Innovation.” In
Cameroon: Art and Kings, 22–67. Zurich: Museum Rietberg
Zurich, 2008.
Gebauer, Paul. Art of Cameroon. Portland: Portland Art
Association, 1979.
Northern, Tamara. Royal Art of Cameroon. Hanover: Dartmouth
College, 1973.
———. The Art of Cameroon. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian
Institution, 1984.
Notué, Jean-Paul, and Bianca Triaca. Mankon: Arts, Heritage,
and Culture from the Mankon Kingdom. Milan: 5 Continents
Editions, 2005.
Warnier, Jean-Pierre. The Pot-King: The Body and Technologies
of Power. Vol. 17. African Social Studies Series. Leiden and
Boston: Brill, 2007.
discuss the intricacies of dining in Grassfields palaces
without focusing on the figure of the king because
he is, in so many ways, the center of the kingdom.
Yet nearly every object can also be viewed through
its relationship to the women who touched it, either
in its making or use. Female potters make the terracotta
vessels and serving bowls. Female artists likely
beaded the king’s palm wine gourds. Queens refilled
the king’s carved drinking horns and they are the
owners of the elaborate serving bowls that are used
to display food in the palace. While the dominant
narrative of palace regalia always revolves around
the king, these works of art serve as important reminders
of the essential role women play in the palace
system. Women do much more than make the
food. They create the art works that support the king
and enhance his power with their presence.
DINING WITH KINGS
/fowler.ucla.edu
