FANG MASK.

Original: Fang Mask (Cameroon, Guinea Equatorial, Gabon)

Following the migrations of the 18th century, the Fang
populations were established in the south of Cameroon, in Guinea Equatorial and in Gabon. They practised the death worship and the families preserved at this use the craniums of the ancestors. The various clans did not know a political unit, but their cohesion was ensured by the initiatory societies. One of them, the ngil (the gorilla) used this type of mask. It was given the responsability to fight against sorcery and did not hesitate to use cruel methods to collect the  suspects consents. Very few of these masks reached us and they were never seen by the westerners ones within the framework of their function. Their use was forbidden in 1910 by colonial France following a series of ritual murder.