MADOU-YENOU BEADED AND WOODEN THRONES
Royal Throne
Wood, beads, bronze cladding, cowrie shells. H: 76 in/194 cm
Provenance: Njikam Isidore–sculptor; Ex Bakime Royal Palace Tikar
Few artistic works of Africa have garnered as much admiration and sheer awe as the beaded thrones from the Cameroon Grasslands that found their way into European museums in the early 1900s. These multi-colored, beaded thrones and stools—particularly those of King Nsangou, sixteenth king of the Bamoun dynasty, and his son, King Njoya Ibrahim—incorporate anthropomorphic and zoomorphic designs integral to the Bamoun culture, and are among the crown jewels of ethnographic museums in Paris, Geneva, Berlin, and other world capitals. The research of Claude Tardits, Christraud Geary, Silvia Forni, and other dedicated anthropologists have, over the past seventy years, gleaned rare insights into the central role played by these thrones and other works of art in the daily life and formal celebrations of the Bamoun kingdom.
These scholars have also helped clarify the dynamics of the African art markets, from the arrival of Europeans in West and Central Africa to the present. Many studies have documented the removal, whether through coercion or commercial exchange, of art from local chieftancies and regional kingdoms; but comparatively little research has explored how local populations protected cultural patrimony from seizure and destruction or of their use of those same cultural idioms to resist colonial depredations and cultural impositions. The research of Tardits and others has also documented how recent pressure from external markets, largely European, has stimulated growth of some local workshops that produce modern, visionary artworks, while encouraging other craftsmen to create reproductions of much older pieces—even at the risk of eroding the integrity of antique African art markets.
During King Njoya’s reign (c. 1886–1933), the art market was fairly centralized; that is, it was managed and overseen by the king himself. During the initial years of his reign, when Cameroon was still under German control, Njoya was the sole authority on what styles of art objects would be produced, which works would be gifted to the colonial regime, and what artisans would be involved in this exchange. As the flow of missionaries, administrators, military officers, traders, and adventurers to the Grasslands increased—and as the renown of Bamoun artisans spread throughout Europe—a more relaxed and diversified commercial exchange bloomed, including the importing and assimilation of objects and styles from other African tribes.
In the wake of Germany’s defeat in World War I, Cameroon became a French colony, and the tentative cooperation that had existed between King Njoya and the German authorities was quickly undermined. That collaborative relationship was replaced by the wholesale dismantling of local governance, imposition of French administrative control at all levels, and the acceleration of resource extraction and other forms of economic exploitation, all of which led to considerable friction between King Njoya and the French. The art market, certainly, did not escape disruption. As tensions between the king and the French escalated, conflicts within the Bamoun populace flared as well, as various Bamoun notables vied with each other to win the confidence and favor of the French administrators. One such conflict, which emerged in the early 1920s, involved Mosé Yéyap, a Bamoun noble and Christian convert, who began to challenge the king’s authority over local artisans as well as his influence with the French in the lucrative sphere of artistic commerce. Yéyap steadily expanded his commercial art enterprise with French collectors and authorities, even opening his own museum to compete with the Royal Museum in Foumban. Meanwhile, French displeasure with Njoya, whom they increasingly regarded as a subversive, incorrigible autocrat, culminated in his exile from his Bamoun kingdom in 1924.
When King Njoya died in exile in 1933, the French selected one of his many sons, Njimoluh Seidou, to replace the beloved king, rather than allow the royal court to choose the legitimate successor to the Bamoun kingdom. As links between France and its African colonies temporarily slackened during the latter part of World War II, Seidou sought to reaffirm control of local government to answer the needs of his people: to that end, he drew on the Nkom secret society and other counselors to elevate Bamoun customs and cultural identity. It was during this time of political and cultural flux that the Tikar chieftaincy of Rifum ordered the creation of the Madou-Yenou thrones. The craftsman’s task was given to Njikam Isidore, grandson of the great sculptor of King Njoya’s reign, Nji Gbetom Salifou. As was the custom, two thrones were made at the same time; the second as a backup, in case anything should happen to the primary throne. The two thrones were completed between 1945 and 1946. The striking similarities of the two—e.g., the use of traditional Bamoun designs, the posture of the thrones’ figures, and their facial features—confirm their esteemed place in the time-honored Bamoun tradition of crafting dual thrones.
Following World War II, Cameroon became a United Nations Trust Territory and joined what was then known as the French Union, with a loosely defined pathway to independence that was sanctioned by the Allied powers. Seidou’s efforts to revitalize Bamoun culture extended to the postwar period, when the French reignited tensions in the region with their push to speed the postwar recovery of the French metropole by increasing taxes and resource extraction in Cameroon. During this time, Seidou promoted handicrafts and diverse types of art; he further liberalized the local art market to stimulate production for a nascent export market. Meanwhile, the Algerian War (1954-62), by now the focal point of France’s involvement in Africa, further energized Cameroonian opposition to the French and the battle cry for independence. Friction between French authorities and settlers, who challenged the emerging local economic and political elites, exacerbated the situation, fueling the struggle for independence and eventually sparking a catastrophic civil war that led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Cameroonians. King Seidou, who was a major force behind both the formation of his nation and the unification of eastern and western Cameroon, consistently promoted the primacy of Bamoun culture in preparing his people for the new challenges of nationhood.
Incidentally, there is a fascinating historical footnote regarding the local perspective on the creation of King Seidou’s thrones. According to local lore, King Seidou declared that the new throne, while modeled on the thrones of his predecessors, should also be an extension and affirmation of centuries-old Bamoun traditions. That historical tradition stems from the reign of King Ngouloure, tenth king of the Bamoun dynasty, who ruled from 1629 to 1672. Ngouloure had two wives, Yenou and Madou. Just prior to his death, Ngouloure summoned Madou, his second, younger wife, and told her, “When I die, your son will be my successor.” Dismayed, Madou responded, “No, I am still a young woman and I can have more children. It would be better to give the line of succession to Yenou, your first wife, whose son Koutou will be more capable of leading the kingdom.”
After Ngouloure’s death in 1672, Koutou assumed his royal responsibilities, and, as was the custom, married his father’s second wife, Madou. The new king turned to his wife, proclaiming, “If it had not been for your wisdom, Madou, I would never have acceded to my position as king. I will therefore build a throne to be called Madou-Yenou, and I will place two personages behind the seat, and I will base my power on you.” Under the benediction of this unified royal family, Madou later gave birth to the great king Mbuombouo, whose military prowess established Bamoun supremacy in the Grasslands by the turn of the nineteenth century. From King Koutou onward, local tradition has referred to the royal thrones, including those of Kings Nsangou and Njoya, as “Madou-Yenou thrones.”
Chief Mongbet Vessah Ibrahim and David W. Reed
