Traditional Art of Gabon: Brass Adornments of the Fang

"In a little bay we pass we see eight native women, Fans clearly, by their bright brown faces, and their loads of brass bracelets and armlets, intent on breaking up a stockaded fish-trap." 

Mary Kingsley, 1895, Travels in West Africa. 

Mary Kingsley speculated that these eight ladies were wearing anklets, but couldn't see them since they were standing in the water. Living in Gabon in the 1990s, I bought one such bracelet (below), with beautiful incised decoration, from an elderly Fang lady who had with her a battered mask and an aged leather pouch containing this bracelet, an arrowhead-shaped piece of iron and a very simple thin brass bangle.

A richly decorated copper alloy bracelet I purchased from an elderly Fang lady in Gabon in the 1990s (RS.AF2). A similar example is illustrated in Grébert (1932) reproduced in Grébert et al. (2003)

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Another brass ornament (see below) has a distinctive and symmetrical pattern of ornament, with a central rectangular field enclosing four inward curving grooves, flanked by square fields decorated with finely incised ornament.

A smaller brass akuré', of a size suitable for wearing on the upper arm, with ornament matching that observed by Tessmann (1913).

Variations on this style of ornament are seen on larger brass neck collars which are well illustrated by Tessmann (1913) and Grébert (1922) from the early 20th century, though not mentioned by Du Chaillu (1861, 1876), Burton (1865), Marche (1878), de Brazza (1878, 1888), Kingsley (1897) or Bennett (1899). Were they thus a late and relatively short-lived development, perhaps a fashion lasting around a quarter to a third of a century? This view would contrast very strongly with the statement by Perrois & Sierra Delage (1990, pg 164) that they are "very old cultural markers, which have accompanied all the Fang tribes for centuries."

Bennett (1899) gave the following detailed account of neck ornaments among the Fang of Gabon towards the end of the 19th century:

"Men, women, and children wear necklaces of glass beads, the hoofs of very small antelope, and certain forest beans, are strung and worn around the neck. Bristles from the tail of an  elephant are used for the same purpose. When in mournilng, a necklace is made from bleached grass plaited; it is worn by both sexes. A very favourite fetish charm to suspend from a necklace is a leopard tooth. I have frequently seen the two tusks of a wild boar or 'Wart hog' worn around the neck as an ornament and have succeeded in bringing specimens worn mostly by the women." 

He made no mention of brass or bronze neck ornaments. He had previously spent time with the Bulu (Bulu Fang) of Cameroon (a group later encountered by Tessmann) and commented on the close similarity of the language, but did not discuss Bulu personal ornaments beyond the use of the same styles of headdresses and the shared habit of using redwood powder for body painting. According to Bennett, writing on the Gabonese Fang, "Imported brass is obtained in trade and made into armlets, anklets, finger and toe rings."

Drawing of a Fang lady in Grébert (1922) showing bracelets, armlets, anklets and her heavy brass collar.

These highly decorated adornments were designed to be worn for life (Tessmann 1913, Grébert 1922, 1932) and many show signs of the difficulty in removing them for the European collectors purchasing them in the first third of the 20th century. Günter Tessman, in his monograph on the Fang of southern Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea described how these neck collars were put on, "the difficulty it implied, the ritual aspect, the role and presence of the traditional healer and blacksmith, undergoing what could be seen as a challenging rite of passage." 

A large example with fine and distinctive ornament is shown below.

Heavy brass akuré neck collar from northern Gabon (RS.AF34). Diameter is approximately 15 cm, but the original shape has been deformed on removal of the collar. Tessmann (1913) Abb. 222a. Verzierungen auf Messinghalsringen (see below) shows a selection of designs observed on these collars. There is not an exact match for the design seen on this example.

Bright heavy brass akuré neck collar withe characteristic designs known from the early 20th century

Tessmann's illustration shows the variety of designs all within a common framework of central rectangular to square or trapezoidal panels with inward directed arcs on each side flanked by side panels with variations on simple themes of cross-hatching, rectangles and triangles. These side panels are flanked by outward directed arcs.

Illustration by Tessmann (1913, Volume 1, pg 269) of the designs of brass neck collars ("messinghalsringen") he encountered.

Fernand Grébert later illustrated various Fang collars and bracelets. He was based in Gabon between 1913 and 1931 on behalf of the Evangelical Missionary Society of Paris and brought back many objects for sale to museums. Grébert (1922) gave the following account: 

"The elegant women of the interior, who keep the costumes of the past, wear a very small loincloth and ornaments that they never take off: the bead belt under the loincloth, bracelets of thick brass threads above or below the biceps, calf, ankle, wrist; such that the muscles end up being completely deformed. Around the neck, a full necklace, weighing one kilo, decorated with designs and closed with a hammer on the woman's neck. The skin, under these copper ornaments, turns green. One or more chains of beads pass from the neck to the ears and into the nostrils. On the head, helmets of beads or buttons, more or less intertwined with the hair, in the form of crests, headbands, pendants. In the past, men wore feathers, as the Gabonese stamp still indicates. They filed their teeth into sharp points and passed a porcupine quill through their noses."

This description matches the observations of Bennett (1899) in all regards (down to the porcupine quills) with the exception of the heavy necklaces (highlighted in bold above). 

Illustration in Fernand Grébert (1932) showing brass bracelets and collars

Folio 301 in Grébert’s second album depicts a man wearing an akuré, while the nearby woman is shown wearing replacement necklaces made out of liana vines.  Grébert specifies in the caption: "Elegance best: Col et brassard en liane (en replacement des colliers en laiton, revenues)" - “in replacement of the brass necklaces.” She doesn't look very happy about it.

Illustration in Fernand Grébert (1932), folio 280 reproduced in Grébert et al. (2003), showing an akuré collar being closed, possible intended to be for life - before European collectors arrived! "Fermeture d'un collier de laiton ... torque en laiton massif ciselé de motifs décoratifs que toute les femmes un peu considérées devaient porter jusque a la mort."

Illustration in Grébert (1932), Folio 301. The lady at left has recently had her brass collar removed for sale, now replaced by vines.

Another distinctive style of brass neck collar features protruding flanges as in the famous image below.

This is a famous illustration, frontispiece to Tessmann (1913 volume 1), showing a young Fang man from Owong with bright brass neck ring. Some of these collars give the illusion of being made of gold (to a certain dealer), but they are not.

A large and heavy neck ring with two projecting flanges, 20 cm diameter. Beneath the warm reddish patina is bright brass as shown in Tessmann's frontispiece.

Origins of the Akuré 

A clue to the origins of the akuré is afforded by a specimen in the Liverpool World Museum, donated in 1883 by the British trader J.G.C. Harrison (Kingdon 2015) and made from English brass rods. This example differs from the early 20th century heavy pieces in having a square section, far simpler ornament and a much lighter design. Nonetheless, the basic decorative components of a central rectangular panel flanked by two areas of cross-hatched incisions are visible.

Torque, "made from English brass rods by the Fans, from Ogowe" in the Liverpool World Museum. The torque is 130 mm x 9 mm, so smaller and thinner than the known 20th century akuré. This example was a gift of J. G. C. Harrison (appointed 'King of Kaputa' at Sette Cama), 1883 (Accession number 11.10.83.15). Sette Cama is a place I knew well in the 1990s.

Conclusions 

It is intriguing that the heavy neck collars so strongly associated with traditional Fang culture (Tessman 1913, Grébert 1922, Perrois & Sierra Delage 1990) are not mentioned by 19th century observers. They appear to be largely an early 20th century development. A fascinating 19th century precursor shows an early version of the classic 20th century akuré ornament in the form of a square-sectioned penannular torque with central design consisting of a rectangular field with two inwardly curved indentations flanked by two fields of simple cross-hatching. 

References 

De Brazza, S. 1878. Trois explorations effectuées dans l'Quest Africain (1876-1885).

De Brazza, S. 1888. Voyages dans l'Ouest Africain (1875-1887). Le Tour du Monde, Nouveau Journal des Voyages. Deuxième Semestre. Libraire Hachette, Paris.

Du Chaillu, Paul B. 1861. Explorations and adventures in Equatorial Africa. John Murray, London.

Grébert, F. (1922). Au Gabon : (Afrique équatoriale française). Paris: Soc. des Missions évangéliques.

Grébert, F., Savary C., and Perrois L. (2003).  Le Gabon de Fernand Grébert : 1913-1932. Genève: Musée d’ethnographie.

Kingdon, Z. 2015. Subtracting the Narrative: Trade, Collecting, and Forgetting in the Kongo Coast Friction Zone during the Late Nineteenth Century’ published in the journal Museum Worlds: Advances in Research, 3, 18-36.

Laburthe-Tolra, P., Tessmann, G.,  Falgayrettes-Leveau C. (1991). Fang. Paris: Editions Dapper.

Marche, 1878. Voyage au Gabon et sur le fleuve Ogooué. Tour du Monde 36, 2, 369-416.

Perrois, L. & Sierra Delage, M. 1990. Art of Equatorial Guinea. Rizzola. New York, 177 pp.

Tessmann, G. 1913. Die Pangwe. Wasmuth, Berlin. 2 volumes.