KAKA

FIGURE

In the forested highlands south of the Donga River, in what is now Cameroon’s Northwest Region, the Kaka — an umbrella term for groups such as the Mbaw, Mbem, Mfumte, and Yamba — carved very unique sculptures of striking presence. This male figure, known as enok ateng, literally “fighting alone”, was likely created and used in the context of spiritual healing practices.

Commissioned by a healer, the figure was not intended as an ancestral representation, but as a vessel of ritual power — charged through the application of herbs and sacrificial blood while incantations were spoken. The aim: to ward off invisible forces. It had to stand firmly, as a steadfast counterpart within the ritual space. This requirement is reflected in the heavy volume of the lower body and the slight forward tilt of the figure, at once attentive and confrontational.

The sculpture’s aesthetic is marked by radical reduction and expressive tension. A near-cylindrical torso bears a prominent ritual scar and is flanked by oversized hands, their fingers evenly grooved. The rounded face, with half-closed eyelids and a wide, almost caricatured grin, radiates an ambiguous expression — hovering between serenity and trance-like focus. The conical coiffure, subtly curled at the tip, likely alludes to social rank or spiritual initiation.

Its matte, partly heavily blackened surface shows signs of more than many ceremonies. Sooty deposits have settled into the recesses, while exposed areas reveal the glowing reddish-yellow wood beneath. Whether this layer stems from repeated ritual offerings or smoke from being suspended above open hearths remains uncertain—both explanations are plausible.

This enok ateng is not merely an aesthetic object. It is a deeply functional one: a ritual confrontation with the unseen, captured in wood.

Cameroon, Northwest-Region, Donga-Mantung Department
46 cm, wood
Jean Chatelus, Alain Lecomte (ca. 2002), Christophe Evers, German Private Collection

PUBLISHED
AHRDRC: ao-0212962

LAST MARKET APPEARANCE: 2012
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