Between Two Worlds, the Collection’s third section, pulls the reader into an encounter with the centuries’ old African belief system. Spiritual guides and healers tapped the spiritual energy of ancestors to protect the living from misfortune and evildoers. This section highlights the spiritual artifacts from over 20 West African tribes that were used to transfer protective power from the dead to the living.
A dedicated exploration of the Collection reveals the international dynamics that shaped the world and African history over the past five centuries. For example, the Tikar royal thrones were crafted in the shadow of power realignments in Europe after World War I when the British and the French displaced the Germans—the Grasslands’ original colonizers. The French colonial regime quickly collided with King Njoya Ibrahim—the Bamoun sovereign who had fostered expansion of the arts across the Grasslands—and exiled him. The French colonialists’ rapacious regime generated resistance from local artisans who used Bamoun culture to reinforce national identity in the midst of Cameroon’s struggle for independence and self-determination in the 1960s.
The Slave Scene extends the collection’s historical scope with a scene from 1750 that demonstrates how Europeans grafted the nefarious transatlantic slave trade onto traditional hostage systems associated with the “honor wars” that engulfed many West and West Central African tribes. The bronze figures portray how local and colonial guards marched captured Bantu villagers from the highlands down to coastal forts. From there, the captives would be shipped to the Americas to spend their lives enslaved on sugar, cotton, and rice plantations.
Between Two Worlds explores the African cosmology, or belief system, which prevailed for centuries across Bantu tribes stretching from Angola northward along the West African coast to Cameroon. That belief system affirmed the existence of two parallel worlds, the land of the living and the land of the dead. This section features spiritual objects called minkisi that healers used to carry the spirits of the dead into the lives of villagers. The minkisi’s spiritual power was so great that it posed direct threats to European colonizers, Christian missionaries, and military forces, ultimately leading to a full-scale campaign (1880-1920) by colonialists to destroy all traces of the tribes’ spiritual objects.
Paradoxically, my acquisition of these pieces adds another chapter to the history of artifacts in this collection. Grasslands chiefs and village elders made difficult decisions to relinquish ownership of parts of their cultural patrimony in order to alleviate poverty’s tightening grip on their villages. Growing demographic stresses and insufficient government support increased pressure on local leaders to find additional resources to address their communities’ urgent needs. More recently, insurrection and protracted civil strife in Cameroon’s Grasslands and other countries have generated such social instability that protecting the art in local venues has become nigh impossible.
As part of my long-standing agreement with village leaders “to honor and protect these exceptional pieces of art,” I have conducted technical analyses and extensive background research to provide a more detailed understanding of the history of each piece. Through the three publications accessible on this website, I have tried to expand the public’s visual access to these extraordinary artifacts. And, by offering historical documentation, I have tried to highlight the struggles of African people that have shaped and are embedded in each piece.
David W. Reed, PhD
