A Chamba sculpture, Nigeria, standing on wedge-shaped feet with short legs and bent knees, the arms close to the body, a round head sits above a short neck, minimal facial features, round eyes and small indentations for the nose and mouth, a conical hat; clear signs of age and use.

Not much is known about the meaning of these Chamba figures. They probably represent important ancestors who could be consulted at various ceremonies and provided with offerings.

"Similar to their Mumuye and Jukun neighbours, the Chamba venerate anthropomorphic statues of male and female gender. As Fardon (in Berns, Fardon and Kasfir 2011: 231) explains, figural "sculptures were highly versatile instruments in the Middle Benue. They might stand in particular for ancestors, or for a collectivity of the dead (ranging from those of a specific kin grouping to the dead generally), or for dangerous spirits that were taken to be human-like in appearance. In different contexts, the same anthropomorphic figure might evoke some or all of these types of being, and it might do so differently for participants, for onlookers, and for those excluded except by hearsay, who enjoyed more or less insight into what was taking place. To make the same point negatively, nothing we know about Middle Benue figures suggests that their unmodified formal properties specially suited them to one type of ritual use rather than another." And he continues (ibid.: 233): "Aside from occasional, slight differences in size, Middle Benue male and female sculptures are similar, differentiated by features of the head (particularly coiffure, earrings, or headgear, which are treated as secondary gendered characteristics)" Source: Myron Kunin Collection of African Art

Lit.: K.-F. Schädler: Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich 2009; Jean-Baptiste Bacquart: The Tribal Arts of Africa' by Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, 2002.

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Height: 84 cm
Weight: 5,9 kg