Masks on the Move Defying Genres, Styles, and Traditions in the Cameroonian Grassfields

Silvia Forni

n the realm of African art, masks are some of the most This article investigates the longstanding history of commer- exemplary and iconic artworks. Whether displayed cial practices and stylistic experimentation that characterize to be admired for their shape, form, and volumes, or the production of masks and other artworks in the Grassfields presented in dialogue with ethnographic information of Western Cameroon. While I acknowledge the importance of and contextual images, masks are omnipresent in col- long-distance and international trade as an important stimulus lections and displays of African art. As aesthetic and for creativity and artistic production, my intention is to high- ethnographic objects, masks are used as gateways to the under- light the significance of contemporary artistic inventions in Istanding and appreciation of “cultural styles” as well as the for- shaping local understanding of aesthetics and material displays. mal and creative solutions adopted by artists and workshops. Yet Collections, museums, eco-museological itineraries and, more the appeal of masks also relies on their perceived irreducible dif- recently, experimentations and artistic interventions by contem- ference and mysterious spiritual aura. Even when isolated and porary artists Hervé Youmbi and Hervé Yamguen (Fig. 1) have stripped of their fiber costumes and attachments, there is always produced a complex and intriguing regional and national artistic a reference to the body of an absent wearer, thus evoking a sit- scene. Here the taxonomies distinguishing commercial produc- uated and embodied history of production, performance, and tions from “authentic artworks” have been blurred and subverted social meaning that often does not accompany the mask into the in local practices, where masks are now moving between spheres museum. Yet even when isolated and stripped of their embodied of practice and understanding that defy canonical strictures. meaning, masks are still perceived as affecting. The meaning constrictions of masks in museum displays NOT JUST FOR TOURISTS: ART AND MARKETS IN THE often extend to many other African art objects which, in their TWENTIETH CENTURY aesthetic and function, known or imagined, suggest differ- In a 1910 postcard, published in 2014 on Bruno Claessens’s ent forms of conceptual and geographical displacement. Many blog, four young men stand by an artfully arranged display of galleries and museums in Europe and North America contain decorative masks and figures carved in Kongo style (Fig. 2).1 This large numbers of religious and performative objects, collected early Loango market stall, featuring “fetishes” for sale, was strik- as Europeans expanded their control over territory and over the ingly similar to more contemporary commercial displays of com- minds and bodies of people throughout the continent. While parable objects found in rural and urban centers across Africa these were often seized, stolen, or acquired as people “con- and beyond. While postcards documenting early tourist markets verted” to new beliefs and cultural practices, others were pur- are not very common, the practice of creating objects for sale chased in rather straightforward market interactions. Indeed, to merchants, travelers, and colonial administrators is as old as the fascination shown by foreigners towards these “mysterious” contact itself. The classic examples of the Afro-Portuguese ivo- and “sacred” artworks also gave birth, almost immediately, to a ries (Fagg 1959, Bassani et al. 1988) or Loango carved tusks and rather secular, market-oriented production of masklike objects figurines (Bridges 2013) are well-known cases. Yet many travel- meant for display rather than performance. ers’ and collectors’ accounts testified to the entrepreneurship of

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forni.indd 38 19/02/2016 4:10 PM 1 First ceremonial outing of artist Hervé Yamguen with his newly created Ku’ngang mask. Village of Dakpeudjie near Bandja, West Cameroon, March 30, 2015. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

local artists and middlemen, fast to grasp and cater to the tastes Such interactions were clearly not limited to the Congo area, and preferences of new customers. Scholars have highlighted but were recurrent in almost any region touched by Euro- the importance of commerce in shaping artistic production pean “civilizing” and “scientific” endeavors. As colonial powers since early contact times and likely even earlier.2 A paradigmatic expanded their control over inland territories, new objects and example is found in Enid Schildkrout’s essay on Fredrick Starr productions started to develop to cater to the needs of a society and Herbert Lang’s collecting in the Congo. In one of the pages in transformation. The Cameroonian Grassfields offer important of his diary from 1905, Starr wrote: insight into this process of artistic and market changes over the Fetishes were too plenty and too fresh to be entirely satisfactory course of the twentieth century. … Yesterday a well carved wooden figure was offered. I refused it The Grassfields, corresponding to the francophone West and because it was rather new and empty in its stomach hole. Today it the anglophone North West Regions of the Republic of Camer- appeared again, this time with a fat round belly neatly sewed up and oon, is a densely populated, politically and linguistically divided well smeared with cam and oil. I agreed to the price, getting it down region, and a well-known area in the study of African art. While to 1.50 francs (Starr, Dec. 4, 1905 quoted in Schildkrout 1998:182). never a favorite of the European and North American high-end

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forni.indd 39 19/02/2016 4:10 PM 2 A Loango stall selling masks and other decora- tive carvings. 1919. Photo: courtesy of Stefan Klein

3 Mosé Yeyap with his collection of regalia and commercial objects in front of the museum he estab- lished in Fumban. Photo: courtesy of Christraud Geary

art market because of their bold and blocky forms, Grassfields the first decades of the twentieth century, Grassfields artworks arts have nevertheless found a place in all significant institu- were systematically and competitively acquired by government tional collections of African art.3 The centers of production officials, scholars, missionaries, doctors, curators, and explor- and use of these artworks were located in a relatively small and ers (Geary 1983, 2011). Important field collections from this area densely populated area in the west of the country, but despite are found in prestigious European and North American insti- their known local specificity, Grassfields arts have become an tutions and particularly in Germany, Switzerland, and France almost metonymic representation of the artistic production of (Obenhofer 2010). Chris Geary (1983:85–94) accounts for the Cameroon as a whole.4 almost aggressive early twentieth century collecting practices One recurrent theme of the scholarship of this region was of various foreigners interested in securing the best pieces for an emphasis on style and shared material culture as important their government or funding institution. While older objects elements defining the area as an ethnic/cultural unit. Accord- were most coveted, collectors would not refuse to purchase the ing to Fowler (1997), art was what defined the Grassfields bold zoomorphic and anthropomorphic masks, stools, pipes, fig- regional character, despite great political and linguistic frag- ures, richly decorated containers, garments, and other artworks mentation. Indeed, the stylistic homogeneity of the region was a inspired by the local material culture of power and produced by feature that reflected in visible terms the broad circulation of art- the many contemporary workshops active at the time. works through short- and long-distance networks of exchange, Many scholars have written about the complicated historical whereby masks, stools, pipes, and other prestige items would be traded and exchanged both as diplomatic gifts and as commodities (Bravmann 1973, War- nier 1985) (Fig. 3). The slippage in identi- fication from artistic style to a somewhat uniform cultural area was by no means unique to this region and can be traced as a common taxonomic and classificatory device in many canon-shaping art his- torical publications. Yet, in the Grassfields as elsewhere, trade and exchanges were more influential than cultural or linguistic identity in determining artistic forms and regional aesthetics.5 Whether locally produced or acquired, the public display of art was an impor- tant feature of the manifestation of local political power and a marker of distinc- tion, which identified the rank and pres- tige of individuals and households. In

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forni.indd 40 19/02/2016 4:10 PM in press; Geary 2011; Tardits 1980, 2004). In addition, Bamum leaders, and particularly King Njoya (r. 1886–1931), strategically used art as a vehicle of diplomatic and commercial exchange with the Europeans who explored and/or settled in the region since the early 1900s (Geary 1994). The political and diplomatic production supported by Bamum kings and notables rapidly morphed into a broader range of artworks when King Njoya, towards the end of his reign, released control over the sale of and access to prestigious goods, allowing court artists to work not only for the king and foreigners but also for a broader segment of local society.6 Other kingdoms specializing in art and prestige items production also saw the progressive expansion and diver- sification of their clientele, with workshops producing a broad range of objects for local, national, and international markets.

5 King’s reception room. Bali Palace, Western Cameroon, 1998. Photo: Silvia Forni

4 Monumental “Batcham” mask in a commercial gallery near the Sultan’s Palace. Foumban, West Cameroon, 2013. Photo: Silvia Forni

dynamics that have influenced the development of the arts of the Cameroonian Grassfields and their lasting legacy in contempo- rary production (Argenti 2002; Forni forthcoming; Geary 1983, 2011; Geary and Xatart 2007; Horner 1993). Indeed, the artistic preeminence of the Grassfields was not just a thing of the past, but continues to be a notable and acknowledged feature of the region in the twenty-first century. Artistic workshops are found throughout the region often still mirroring regional artistic spe- cialization (Knöpfli 1997, Warnier 1985). In this rich regional scene, Fumban, the capital of the Bamum kingdom, is the main market center for regional artworks, with thousands of artists working in a variety of media and hundreds of dealers trading artworks locally, nationally, and internation- ally (Fig. 4). The centrality of Fumban as art market and produc- tion center has deep historical roots, which can be traced to the aggressive expansive politics of Bamum leaders, their ability to assimilate conquered people, their ability to control artistic pro- duction for the court’s display and for diplomatic exchanges, and the centralization of artist workshops around the palace (Forni

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forni.indd 41 19/02/2016 4:10 PM GLOBAL NETWORKS AND AESTHETIC INFLUENCES At the same time, the early interest in African styles and art The social and political transformations at the beginning of forms from other regions laid the path for the eclectic produc- the twentieth century account for the remarkable concentration tion and aesthetic experimentation that characterizes many of workshops and dealers in the Grassfields, and Fumban in par- contemporary workshops in the Grassfields. Paul Gebauer, liv- ticular. Here production aesthetic and style have continued to ing in the Grassfields from the 1930s to 1961, documented differ- morph and change as a response to the transformation of local ent instances of experimentation in Cameroonian workshops, demands as well as the continuing expansion of the African art including Ife-style brass heads produced by Bamum brass casters market in Europe and North America, and more recently South living in Nkwen, near Bamenda (1979:122). While certainly many Africa and Asia. Research by scholars of commercial art have of these formal experiments were initially developed with for- highlighted creative dialogue between producers and consum- eign customers in mind, after decades of production, artworks ers often mediated by dealers, acting as intermediaries and cul- in different African styles have become quite integrated into the tural brokers.7 In Fumban this dialogue and mediation has long material culture of the region (Forni 2015b; forthcoming). been recognized as being a crucial aspect of creative produc- Twenty-first century palaces, museums, dance fields, and tion. Makers and brokers were not just passive recipients of the domestic parlors continue to be populated with heterogeneous collecting and scientific interest of foreign agents and scholars, material displays, including figures carved in different canoni- but they often took an active role in understanding the devel- cal African styles, such as Kongo, Punu, or Chokwe, Indian reli- opments in the field of African art and in shaping it. Cultural gious iconography, Catholic devotional images, Chinese décor, brokers—whether kings, notables or dealers—understood the international pop icons, and advertisement calendars. Contem- potential that artistic innovation had in sustaining a regional porary Grassfields artistic productions comfortably straddle a and international art market and strengthening the relevance of variety of globalized aesthetic stimuli that are appropriated and Fumban as an art-producing center. reinterpreted locally, posing a challenge to externally imposed Missionary George Schwab, in a letter to the director of the art historical taxonomies. A Chinese-made carpet representing Peabody Museum at Harvard University sent on January 5, 1930, a tiger may be found behind a royal throne in lieu of the leopard recounted the critical role of his interpreter and field assistant pelt associated with kingly power (Fig. 5). Locally carved sculp- Mosé Yeyap (Fig. 2) in facilitating his collecting activity on behalf tures inspired by power figures from the Democratic Republic of the museum.8 Schwab requested that the museum send for his of Congo are often placed in royal courtyards, ritual spaces, and collaborator a book “with plenty plenty pictures” on African art. palace museums. Punu-style masks grace the entrance to the While it is not clear whether or not any book was sent, museum private spaces inhabited by the king and his wives. director Dr. Earnest Hooton selected twenty-five images of Afri- Unmistakably, the works embody a globalized African aes- can artworks from the Peabody collection, which were sent on thetic vocabulary, and yet they function effectively as signifiers March 15 for Schwab to share with his “native friend.” Yeyap’s in traditional displays. These stylistic adaptations seem incon- interest in African art, at the time when the canon itself was first gruous to observers familiar with art-historical style distinctions being constructed in the West through a process of appropria- in African art, who usually dismiss these “out of place” objects tion, taxonomy, and selection, reflects an awareness of global with a mixture of disbelief and disdain. One of the reasons for trends and, ultimately, “coevalness” (Fabian 1983) often obscured these new introductions is definitely the seemingly unstoppable and denied in primitivist narratives.

6 Palace sculptor Ibrahim, guiding visitors through the main entrance to the palace com- pound. Batoufam, Cameroon, July 2013. Photo: Silvia Forni

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forni.indd 42 19/02/2016 4:10 PM disappearance of “antiquities” from Grassfields palaces, regula- tory societies’ gathering places, and family compounds.9 How- ever, local leaders and communities have a much more flexible attitude toward introducing novelties in their material culture of power than rigid ethnic style paradigms may suggest. At the local level, the cultural displays that fuel and reinforce tradi- tional political and religious structures are not constricted by art-historically defined stylistic parameters, but on many levels appear open to opportunistic acquisitions as well as new visual vocabularies and aesthetic experimentations.

BLURRING BOUNDARIES, CHALLENGING TAXONOMIES As is by now clear, creative experimentation with styles and object types is not a new characteristic for Grassfields work- shops. In a similar vein, pieces carved in foreign styles have long featured in public and private spaces, where in many cases they have to come to embody local meanings through a somewhat sophisticated reading of their formal characteristics. When I questioned Ibrahim, the palace carver of the Chefferie of Batou- fam, on the choice to place a Punu-style female mask above one of the main entrances to the palace (Fig. 6), he put emphasis on the concept rather than the style of the carving. In his opinion, the choice addressed the desire to highlight the social and spiri- tual importance of women in Bamileke society. “I know that the style is Punu, but it is clearly a woman. In our tradition, we do not have masks that clearly represent women. This one conveys the message very clearly.”10 From this perspective, the introduc- tion of new and somewhat unconventional objects within the public display spaces of palaces clearly isn’t just a shift in formal characteristics or carving style, but it is the adoption of a whole new type to fill novel needs for which no satisfactory solution exists in the local sculptural tradition. While formal innovation in local palaces is usually accomplished through juxtapositions of artworks and objects available in local markets, urban con- temporary studio artists take a more head-on approach to find- ing ways to think and express the shifting needs of contemporary displays and community performances.

7 Artist Hervé Youmbi in the gallery space at Bandjoun Station, 2015. Photo: courtesy of Hervé Youmbi

8 Hervé Youmbi discussing the aesthetics of Ku’ngang masks with M. Djoumbi Etienne, taku of the masking society and another member. Balessie, Western Cameroon, February 2015. Photo: Hervé Yamguen

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forni.indd 43 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 9 Historical and contemporary Yégué masks. Hervé Yamguen posing with another member of the society. Balessie, Western Cameroon, August 2015. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

broader region, where he returns periodi- cally for professional and personal reasons. In his personal life and his artistic practice Youmbi straddles different cultural and creative spaces, finding inspiration from his own strategically liminal artistic posi- tioning or, at times, from surprising ways of crossing boundaries between spaces of creation and art fruition. Crossing of boundaries and challeng- ing of taxonomies is very much at the core of Youmbi’s last series, Visage de Masques (2015), an ongoing artistic experi- mentation with the masking tradition of Ku’ngang, one the most important and lively masking societies of Western Cam- eroon.11 Visage de Masques is a complex conceptual piece in which Youmbi plays with the boundaries that define “fine art,” “commercial art,” “gallery space,” “art work,” “masquerade,” and his own iden- tity as an internationally represented artist living in Cameroon’s largest city, yet he is also intrigued by the contemporaneity of the traditional culture that still, in some ways, defines him. Ku’ngang is a ritual society widespread throughout the Bamileke region (Fig. 8). Divided amongst familial lineages and characterized by different ritual appear- ances, performances, and functions, Ku’ngang interconnects the different seg- ments of communities and it is often con- sidered at the core of Bamileke kingdoms (Perrois and Notué 1997:74). While certain ritual manifestations of Ku’ngang, such as the yégué masquerade, are quite consistent throughout the region, others present a A complex and unconventional reading of form and concept rather varied array of characters and ritual implements. Yégué is the foundation of the more recent production of Douala-based is an impressive masquerade with a horned headpiece covered multimedia artist Hervé Youmbi, an established artist with rather in cowries and long dreadlocks of human hair that conceal the extensive international experience and exposure (Fig. 7). One of body of the dancer (Fig. 9). Other Ku’ngang masquerades have Youmbi’s longstanding artistic concerns has been to reflect on more defined zoomorphic or anthropomorphic figures with the blurred boundaries and heterogeneous sources of inspiration wooden headpieces often representing monkeys or humans with that are the basis of creative practices of contemporary artists. bold features and grotesque expressions. Ku’ngang masquerades Always attuned to the apparent contradictions of contemporary are “affecting performances” (Kratz 1994) that mesmerize and life and the somewhat constructed tension between tradition terrify, as they are charged with powerful medicine that makes and innovation, Youmbi lives and practices in the urban space them dangerous to those who are not initiated in the secrets of of Douala. Like many other urban dwellers of Bamileke origin, the society (Perrois and Notué 1997:74). Youmbi maintains a connection with his family village and the Because of its symbolic relevance and its role in local commu-

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forni.indd 44 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 10 Scream mask used during a ceremony in the Fondati village, Western Cameroon, March 24, 2013. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

11 Dance performance in Fondati, Western Camer- oon. The “scream masks” are combined with other newly invented forms of masquerades as contempo- rary embodiments of traditional values. March 24, 2013. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

nities, Ku’ngang is a society that continues to attract young peo- Youmbi refers to that ceremony as a “call to work.” He started ple to its ranks. As an important ritual agent, it is also the site of to investigate the function and roles of masks in Ku’ngang per- creative innovation in its public manifestations. While the ritual formance and the heterogeneous sources of inspiration available appearances of Ku’ngang are mostly enacted in rural communities to mask makers and performers in the Grassfields. Though his and are clearly connected to the strong sense of “tradition” that family is originally from the area, Youmbi, who was born in the defines local identity in many Bamileke kingdoms, they have not Central African Republic before moving to Douala, had never remained static and unchanging across time. In 2010, Youmbi was before explored in depth the connection between local religious invited to a ceremony in Melong where he witnessed members of and spiritual practices and the way beliefs are embodied in the a Ku’ngang group from Bafang perform wearing silicon Hallow- objects used in ritual and performances. In searching to under- een masks of a screaming face (Fig. 10). This creative adoption of stand why that particular “scream mask” could become a part of a Chinese-made industrial mask inspired by the famous Edvard village ceremonies, Youmbi identified the centrality of the ances- Munch painting The Scream of Nature (1893), and popularized tral skull as a frame through which to read people’s reaction to through a series of horror movies, became the impetus for Youm- form. Though foreign in inspiration, manufacture, and intended bi’s reflection on the plasticity of tradition and the role that the art- use, the Halloween mask can be read as an expressive repre- ist plays in shaping local culture through creative involvement in sentation of a skull-like face which, in the Grassfields context, traditional performances.12 can be easily associated with the ancestral spiritual realm at the

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forni.indd 45 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 12 Sculptor Alassane Mfouapon working on the headpiece designed by Youmbi for a new type of yegué mask. Foumban, Western Cameroon, October 25, 2013. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

13 Beader Marie Kouam in her workshop in Baham, September 25, 2014. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

core of local religion. In general terms, Grassfields arts put great of global visual stimuli, both Western and African. Through the emphasis on the head as the central element of expression of an various components of its installation, Visage de Masques tack- individual’s power. Masquerades in particular emphasize the les the impact of colonialism on artistic production and ritual head as the main component of the dramatic effect of their per- expression in Africa in a layered and playful way. Youmbi’s hybrid formative appearance. Yet they do so through a combination of masks combine well-known African mask styles (such as Dogon, heterogeneous elements that reflect local sensitivities and long- Yoruba, Kota, Punu, and others) with the carved reproduction of distance trade connections, both colonial and postcolonial. Most the Chinese-made, European-inspired “scream mask.” Through of the older masks were decorated with beads, cowrie shells, and novel formal combinations, these masks are meant to distill the other precious material imported from far away. Contemporary essential meanings associated with the power of masquerades in masks, on the other hand, reflect new forms of globalized com- the Grassfields, while at the same time emphasizing a self-con- mercial and cultural connections (Fig. 11). scious appropriation of an idea of African-ness that goes beyond Starting from this consideration, Youmbi set out to create new historical stylistic traditions from the region (Fig. 15). In their masks, made in collaboration with local commercial artists who hybrid and unconventional stylistic associations, the masks are a specialize in wood carving, bead working, and coiffure making. form of scream or direct challenge that the artist directs towards While the conceptual development of Visage de Masques was his multiple publics. This is a scream against the lasting conse- long in the planning, most of the pieces were realized in 2014 quence of colonialism and the enduring conceptual and power- during a residency at Bandjoun Station, the contemporary art fully structural labels that continue to define Africa’s place in the space and cultural center founded by artist Barthelemy Toguo in world. The scream also intends to shatter the glass barrier that 2008.13 Here, in the heart of the Grassfields, Youmbi was able to divides traditional and contemporary art by placing these dif- work with a number of traditional artists to bring his vision to ferent forms of artistic expression in distinct and opposing con- life. Alassane Mfouapon, a wood carver in Fumban, was charged ceptual time-spaces that, as a consequence, deny coevalness and with the carving of the wooden component of the mask (Fig. 12). possible interaction. Through this work and its conceptual and The carving was done following Youmbi’s instructions through practical development, Youmbi claims a space not constricted by various iterations before reaching a successful form. The carved ethnographic and art-historical taxonomies and the freedom to headpieces were then taken to Baham, where they were beaded shape a present informed by traditional knowledge as much as by beader Marie Kouam (Fig. 13), and then to Bandja and Band- by the awareness of global trends. joun, where hair extensions and other decorative elements were Youmbi’s masks are positioned in a space encumbered by added (Fig. 14). wooden crates which display labels identifying the objects as Youmbi’s goal was to produce a body of work that would relate both ritual artworks and contemporary art productions (Fig. 16). to the sensitivities, aesthetic, and techniques expressed in older Through direct references to the market, museum labeling, and examples, while at the same time introducing a broader range global art circulation, the artist plays ironically with the interna-

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forni.indd 46 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 14 Youmbi in conversation with papa Victor Sielegi, who produced the human hair braids decorating Yamguen’s Ku’ngang mask. Bachichieu Village, West- ern Cameroon, March 3, 2015. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

15 Color sketches prepared as visual support for the beading of the masks. Photo: courtesy of Hervé Youmbi.

tional art world that he is a part of while also embracing a sense Yamguen and Youmbi met with the taku’ (father of the ku of cultural belonging that complicates the—sometimes superfi- dance) and other leaders of the Ku’ngang society of the village of cial—globalizing trends of the contemporary art scene. At the Bandja, where Yamguen was going to be initiated. Though they same time, Youmbi also wants to openly belie the repetitiveness requested to see and approve the new mask before it entered the of local aesthetic displays. His project is as much about produc- dance field as part of the public performance of Ku’ngang, the ing masks that would challenge the views of urban gallery-goers conversation was overall very positive. The leaders of the asso- as it is about engaging members of the local masking societies in ciation and the fo (king) of the village were all quite keen to see a discussion about contemporary ritual expression and probing new forms of masks being developed for their traditional per- the boundaries of stylistic permissibility. formance. While certain formal elements were considered to be By choosing to work with regulatory societies, that were more essential (such as the number of horns to be included to prop- than just a mere reproduction of a somewhat emptied façade of erly indicate the status of the wearer or the length of the hair tradition and that played a role in the shaping of the social and attachment to fully conceal the body of the wearer), others were political aspects of the community, Youmbi wanted to position quite clearly open to reinterpretation and could allow for quite himself as the catalyst of a dialogue that could shape and trans- a broad creative intervention. The mask that was then made for form the appearance of masquerades to reflect a keener aware- Yemguen’s public appearance as a new member of Ku’ngang was ness of a more contemporary aesthetic complexity, while at the a modern interpretation of a traditional form that maintained a same time making a powerful statement against the static nature close resemblance to the original while introducing elements of of what is perceived as traditional. And in order to achieve this, innovation, such as the use of buttons and glass beads alongside his masks had to leave the gallery and be danced. the symbolically relevant cowries (Fig. 18).

ART FOR THE GALLERY AND FOR THE DANCE-FIELD: SHIFTING MESSAGES IN CONTEMPORARY ART SPACES The first manifestation of this component of Youmbi’s multi- sited and multidimensional artistic intervention took place through the collaboration with Hervé Yamguen. An artist in his own right, Yamguen contributed to the project not as a creator but as a participant. Following the recent death of his father, Yamguen had been called to assume his role as successor and take up responsibility at both the family and the community level. As part of his succession duties, Yamguen had to be initi- ated and become a full member of the Ku’ngang society of his village, Bandja. Yamguen was keen to wear one of Youmbi’s cre- ations at his inaugural appearance as a Ku’ngang member. Yet it was still necessary to obtain the formal approval of the ritual leaders to insure that the mask would be in fact considered fully part of the society’s performance (Fig. 17).

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forni.indd 47 19/02/2016 4:11 PM Other masks created within the project are more daring and of Bandjoun Station, to the village performance, and back again innovative in their formal approach. These are pieces in which to the gallery space in Bandjoun. As he continues his engage- Youmbi draws freely from a variety of African stylistic tradi- ment with local masking societies, Youmbi is confident that he tions, choosing forms and ideas that he considers germane to will find other members willing to embody one of his creations the underlying principles and aesthetics of the masquerade tra- within local ceremonies as a way to expand and innovate the ditions of West Cameroon. By mid-2015, the yégué mask that visual vocabulary of performance. However, he is also aware that Youmbi made for Yamguen was the only one that had made its the performative component will require a long-term engage- way from the original installation of the series in the art gallery ment with communities and even possibly the transformation

16 Installation view of Visages de masques at the Bandjoun Station art gallery. March 23, 2015. Photo: Hervé Youmbi

17 Youmbi in conversation with King Ngagoum Sylvestre of the village of Balessie, February 2, 2015. Photo: Hervé Yamguen

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forni.indd 48 19/02/2016 4:11 PM and adaptation of the final product in order to mediate between his own vision and the aesthetic of the dance performance. This tension between personal creativity and collective aes- thetics is an underlying feature of Youmbi’s project that mani- fested itself at different phases. While, on the one hand, Youmbi aspired to engage and promote the local savoir faire of village artists and offer a different creative input through his dialogic methodology, on the other, he also wanted to maintain full control over the final product and ensure that none of the art- ists involved had a full formal and technical understanding of the final product. Youmbi was keenly aware of the high level of receptiveness and skill of local artists, who for over a century had been able to capture and interpret market trends and adjust their production to respond to local and international trends. Though Youmbi valued the creative and aesthetic input of the village art- ists, he also wanted to make sure that replicas of his masks would not quickly become a feature of the art stalls found in cities and towns throughout Cameroon. While this was his first project that engaged directly with mak- ers in Fumban and other villages in the Grassfields, it was not the first time that Youmbi incorporated Grassfields artists’ work in his installations. Fumban-made masks were already central to his ear- lier work Ensemble vide (2000) (Fig. 19). This piece played with and challenged the canon and the definitions of value imposed over African creators by institutional and art market gatekeep- ers from Europe and North America (Malaquais 2011a). Defini- tions of value, aspirations, and constricting market dynamics in the globalized art world were also the central themes of another of Youmbi’s works, Totems to Haunt Our Dreams (2010) (Fig. 20), which was exhibited in Dakar, Johannesburg, Cotonou, Kinshasa, and New York (Malaquais 2011b).

18 Hervé Yamguen posing with his newly produced yegué mask. Village of Balessie, Western Cameroon, March 3, 2015. Photo: by Hervé Youmbi

19 Ensemble vide (2000) included masks purchased in African art stands as one of the components of the installation. Photo: Doual’art, courtesy of Hervé Youmbi

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forni.indd 49 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 20 Installation of Totems that Haunt our Dreams. international art market circuit than the one accessible to the Axis Gallery, New York, March 2011. Photo: courtesy of Hervé Youmbi average Fumban carver. Beyond the dialogic approach to creation which inspired Youmbi’s commissioned artworks and the significant personal and technical exchange that this has generated, one of the most innovative aspects of Visage de masques is the ambiguous nature of the masks’ display and artistic “identity.” In May 2015, the masks were exhibited as a contemporary art installation in the white box gallery of the Bandjoun Station. Within this con- temporary art space, the pieces were unambiguously “works of art.” They stood as an artist’s visual and conceptual challenge With Visage de masques, Youmbi engaged personally, and to the various taxonomies and distinctions that define spheres not just formally, with contemporary “traditional” African art- of meaning and value in the contemporary art system. Most of ists and their eclectic, market-inspired, commercial artworks. As the masks, so far, have only lived as inventive and hybrid art- an artist and educator, Youmbi has been very mindful that this works in the exhibition space. In their 2015 installation, they project has also, to a certain extent, been an intervention in the were experienced as a group of cultural artworks installed in the world of commercial carving workshops. By bringing his designs same space as their wooden shipping crates and identified by to Fumban, he was consciously suggesting new ideas for the rep- labels that recalled at once “tombstones” used in museum pre- ertoire of these village carvers whose work continues to be found sentations and the custom descriptions through which objects both in Grassfields palaces and living rooms all over the world. are listed for export. While the gallery installation explicitly and Youmbi’s practice of engagement of “traditional” workshops directly addressed the international and mobile nature of art- throughout the region and of another artist as performer in the works, whose significance and value is closely connected to their field questions the ontology of the artist as main creative agent, commodification and their ability to travel and inhabit different allowing for multiple circuits of feedback and intersection. Yet exhibitionary spaces, Youmbi’s projects have gone beyond this. while he strives to instigate new formal reflections and conversa- With his work the artist strives to continue to complicate tax- tions, he also wants to keep control over the final product, which onomies to a point when they become obsolete and meaningless he aspires to exhibit and sell in a more exclusive and regulated (Fig. 21).

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forni.indd 50 19/02/2016 4:11 PM Visage de masques is a gallery installation that needs to travel 21 The yegué mask danced by Hervé Yamguen dis- played in the gallery space as part of the Visages de in more and different ways than what is customary for contem- masques installation at the Bandjoun Station. March porary art. While it will be exhibited in Douala and possibly 6, 2015. in a few international art capitals of the world in art fairs and Photo: Hervé Youmbi museum exhibitions, Youmbi wants his masks to be active agents in local culture. In his vision, the embodied presentation in the dance field of Bandja will be only the first of many returns of these newly created layered objects of tradition to the sphere of performance. With this series, Youmbi wishes to go beyond the somewhat stifling dialogue with the international art world of galleries and biennials. He wants to engage in a serious mate- rial and performative conversations with the people of the Cam- to nor interested in experiencing art in a gallery setting. In an eroonian Grassfields. This is something that could not happen almost ironic twist, in her speech at the opening of the Band- through an invitation to the opening of an exhibit at Bandjoun joun exhibition, Madame Ama Tutu Muna, Minister of Arts and Station, a space located at the core of the Bamileke area, yet Culture, was quick to declare Visage de masques “Cultural Heri- informed by international sensitivities. Youmbi’s goal is to bring tage” and express the desire to keep it in the country as part of the masks back to the performative space of the ceremonies at the National Museum Collection.14 As of the end of 2015, noth- the core of the social and ritual life of local kingdoms. ing had really moved on the National Museum front and the The first outing done in collaboration with Yamguen, a tra- installation was instead on its way to London and international ditional title-holder, but also an artist and a longtime friend, art fairs. Indeed, the further passage of musealization proposed proved that this dialogue and reintroduction is possible and can by the minister would complicate even further the conceptual generate very positive feedback (Fig. 22). Youmbi is aware that and physical movements of the masks that would be positioned, this introduction is going to require a lot of mediation and reli- somewhat provocatively, in a space still defined by a rather sim- ance on younger members of traditional masking societies. At plistic definition of heritage.15 the same time, he is also excited by the specific resonance and Through the movement between different spaces, audiences, sophisticated semantic understanding of the pieces that emerge and modes of engagement with the artwork, Youmbi has found from the engagement with a public that is neither accustomed new ways to define his role as an artist. Though quite diverse in

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forni.indd 51 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 22 First ritual performance of Hervé Yamguen with be academically or canonically defined as a radically different his yegué mask. Dakpeudjie near Bandja, March 30, 2015. sphere of creativity, market intersections, and aesthetic apprecia- Photo: Hervé Youmbi tion, Youmbi seeks to create a taxonomic short-circuit that may generate a more complex understanding of contemporary Afri- can creativity in Cameroon and abroad.

Silvia Forni is Curator of African Arts and Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum and Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of media and inspiration, one of the constant elements in Youm- Toronto. She has conducted research in Cameroon since 1998. She recently bi’s work is the reflection on the broader social, economic, and edited the volume Africa in the Market with Christopher B. Steiner. Cur- political issues that shape the various worlds that he inhabits rently she is working with Doran Ross working on the exhibition and book as a contemporary Cameroonian artist who participates in the project Art, Honor, and Ridicule: Asafo Flags from Southern Ghana. sil- international art scene. By bringing this reflection into what may [email protected]

Notes (1998) detail specific histories of nineteenth and early entitled The Art of Cameroon, where the majority of the twentieth century artistic transformations influenced by text and the illustrations were dedicated to the arts of Research for this article was supported by the DMV contact and the international market. the Grassfields. Research and Acquisition Fund and the ROM’s Collection 3 One famous exception to this rule is the Helena 5 Susan Gagliardi (2015), for example, investigates and Research Fieldwork Fund. I wish to acknowledge and Rubinstein Bangwa queen, sold for record-breaking the scholarly creation of the Senufo ethnic label on the express my deep gratitude to Hervé Youmbi, whose think- price in 1966. Yet its market prestige is to be connected basis of aesthetic similarities over linguistic, religious, ing, work, and photographs are the core of this essay, and more to its illustrious pedigree and its modernist icon and national borders. to Hervé Yamguen, who danced the artwork. Thanks to status, following its appearance in a very famous Man 6 “The New Laws Prepared by King Njoya” writ- Mark DeLancey for conceiving and editing this issue, to Ray photograph, than to its aesthetics. Its iconic status ten by Njoya (Njoya and Martin 1952:129 ff.). According Jonathan Fine for remembering my work while working and exceptional modernist appeal is proven by the to Geary (1983:292) they were made public at the begin- in the archive, Christraud Geary and Stefan Klein for fact that the Bangwa queen set the record for sales for ning of the 1920s. lending critical images, and to Ciraj Rassool and Gary African art for quite a long time (http://articles.latimes. 7 Classic references exploring this dynamic are van Wyk for commenting on an earlier version of this com/1990-04-22/news/mn-392_1_african-art, accessed Graburn 1976, 1999; Ben Amos 1976; Jules-Rosette 1984; paper. July 22, 2015). and Steiner 1994. More recent scholarship highlighting 1 http://brunoclaessens.com/2014/05/#. 4 The preeminence of this art is also the result of the longue durée of commercial interactions and creative VUE7HZNBf_M, accessed April 29, 2015. the emphasis placed in publications and scholarship. exchanges may be found in Forni and Steiner 2015a, Phil- 2 Many of the essays in Schildkrout and Keim Gebauer (1979) and Northern (1984) both wrote books lips and Steiner 1999, Kasfir and Förster 2013.

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forni.indd 52 19/02/2016 4:11 PM 8 Epistolary exchange between Schwab, the References cited Horner, Alice E. 1993. “Tourist Arts in Africa before Peabody Museum’s director Dr. Hooton and his assis- Argenti, Nicolas. 2002. “People of the Chisel: Appren- Tourism.” Annals of Tourism Research 20 (1):52–63. tant Donald Scott (Letter to Dr. Hooton from George ticeship, Youth, and Elites in Oku (Cameroon).” Ameri- Kasfir, Sidney Littlefield, and Till Förster. 2013. African Schwab, January 5, 1930, Peabody Museum Harvard can Ethnologist 29 (3):497–533. Art and Agency in the Workshop. Bloomington: Indiana University [PM] 30-2, Collection from Africa, Camer- University Press. oon, George Schwab). I owe this find to Jonathan Fine, Bassani, Ezio, William Buller Fagg, Susan Mullin Vogel, who very generously shared this correspondence with Carol Thompson, and Peter Mark. 1988. Africa and the Knöpfli, Hans. 1997. Crafts and Technologies: Some me. Mosé Yeyap was a Christian convert employed as a Renaissance: Art in Ivory. New York: Center for African Traditional Craftsmen of the Western Grasslands of Cam- translator by the French administration who took a very Art. eroon. London: British Museum. active role in shaping the political and artistic landscape Bravmann, Rene. 1973. Open Frontiers: The Mobility of Kratz, Corinne A. 1994. Affecting Performance: Meaning, in Fumban in the first four decades of the twentieth Art in Black Africa. Seattle: Henry Art Gallery; Univer- Movement, and Experience in Okiek Women’s Initiation. century. For a detailed account of Yeyap’s activities, see sity of Washington Press. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Loumpet-Galitzine 2006, Geary 2011, Nelson 2007. 9 The issue of the preservation of Cameroonian Bridges, Nichole N. 2013. “Loango Coast Ivories and the Loumpet-Galitzine, Alexandra. 2006. Njoya et le roy- antiquities is a rather complicated topic. Cameroon Legacies of Afro‐Portuguese Arts.” In A Companion to aume Bamoun: Les archives de la société des missions is known to be a rather lively market of antiquities in Modern African Art, ed. G. Salami and M.B. Visonà, pp. évangéliques de Paris, 1917–1937. Paris: Karthala. African art. Despite being the fifth state to ratify the 51–73. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons. Malaquais, Dominique. 2011a. Hervé Youmbi: Plasticien. UNESCO convention in 1972, Cameroon has not pur- Fabian, Johannes. 1983. Time and the Other: How Montreuil: Editions de l’Œil. sued a very serious battle against illegal export of art- Anthropology Makes Its Object. New York: Columbia ______. 2011b. “Imagin(IN)g Racial France: Take 3— work and ethnographic objects. Even though protective University Press. laws were formally in place since the 1960s, it was only Hervé Youmbi.” Public Culture 23 (1):157–66. Fagg, William. 1959. Afro-Portuguese Ivories. London: in May 2013 that the government approved broad and Nelson, Steven. 2007. “Collection and Context in a Cam- Batchworth Press. comprehensive legislation for the protection of cultural eroonian Village.” Museum International 59 (3):22–30. heritage, which takes as models heritage laws found in Forni, Silvia. Forthcoming. “Visual Diplomacy: Art Cir- Njoya, Sultan, and Pasteur Henri Martin. 1952. Histoire Western countries and particularly the legislation of culation and Iconoclashes in the Kingdom of Bamum.” et coutumes des Bamum rédigées sous la direction du Quebec (Mme Medou, personal communication, July In The Inbetweenness of Things: Materializing Mediation Sultan Njoya. Memoires de L’Institut Francais D’Afrique 2013). Yet, for its full implementation, this law requires and Movement between Worlds, ed. Paul Basu. London: Noire, vol. 5. Dakar: IFAN. a rather extensive and detailed inventory of national Bloomsbury. heritage which, despite the long history of heritage leg- Northern, Tamara. 1984. The Art of Cameroon. Wash- ______. 2015a. “Canonical Inventions and Market islation and some international funding, has never been ington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. accomplished. Knowledge in the Grassfields of Cameroon.” In Africa in 10 Conversation with Ibrahim, July 12, 2013. the Market, ed. Silvia Forni and Christopher B. Steiner. Oberhofer Michaela. 2010. “Die Wiederentdeckung und 11 This account of the origin and intellectual Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum. Reinterpretation einer verloren geglaubten Afrika- Sammlung aus Bamum (Kamerun).” Mitteilungen der development of the Visage des masques series is based ______. 2015b. “Museums, Heritage, and Politics in the Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie, und on different conversations with Hervé Youmbi since Cameroonian Grassfields.” Museum Worlds 3. 2010, and more extensive focused interviews in 2015. I Urgeschichte 31:73–88. Forni, Silvia, and Christopher B. Steiner, eds. 2015. Africa once more thank Hervé for his patience and generosity Perrois, L., and Jean-Paul Notué. 1997. Rois et sculpteurs in the Market: Twentieth Century Art from the Amrad in sharing his ideas and images with me. While I am de l’ouest Cameroun: la panthère et la mygale. Paris: African Art Collection. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum. solely responsible for any error in presentation or inter- Karthala Editions. pretation, I credit Hervé for the ideas and content of the Fowler, Ian. 1997. “Tribal and Palatine Arts from the Phillips, Ruth B., and Christopher B. Steiner. 1999. Unpack- paragraphs that follow. Cameroon Grassfields: Elements for a Traditional ing Culture: Art and Commodity in Colonial and Postcolo- 12 The popularity of Halloween masks, and the Regional Identity.” In Contesting Art: Art, Politics and nial Worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press. “scream” mask in particular, is not limited to the Cam- Identity in the Modern World, ed. Jeremy MacClancey , eroonian context. Gary van Wyk recorded the same pp. 63–84. Oxford: Berg. Schildkrout, Enid. 1998. “Personal Styles and Disciplin- masks being danced in Tanzania among Sukuma mas- ary Paradigms: Frederick Starr and Herbert Lang.” In Gagliardi, Susan. 2015. Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of querade groups, as illustrated in a field photo published The Scramble for Art in Central Africa, ed. Enid Schil- Art and Identity in West Africa. Cleveland, OH: Cleve- in van Wyk 2013:308. dkrout and Curtis A. Keim, pp. 169–92. Cambridge: land Museum of Art; Milan: 5 Continents Editions. 13 More information on this space and Toguo’s Cambridge University Press. vision may be found on Bandjoun Station’s website Geary, Christraud. M. 1983. Things of the Palace. Schildkrout, Enid, and Curtis A. Keim, eds. 1998. The http://www.bandjounstation.com/index.htm (accessed Wisebaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. June 19, 2015). Scramble for Art in Central Africa. Cambridge: Cam- ______. 1994. The Voyage of King Njoya’s Gift: A 14 Gary van Wyk, personal communication, July bridge University Press. Beaded Sculpture from the Bamum Kingdom, Cameroon, 20, 2015. Tardits, Claude. 2004. L’Histoire singulière de l’art in the National Museum of African Art. Washington, 15 It will be interesting to see whether this is in fact Bamoun: Cameroun. Paris: Afredit; Maisonneuve & DC: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian a real proposition and in which ways Youmbi’s work will Larose. Institution. be allowed to intersect within this setting with the many ______. 1980. Le Royaume Bamoun. Paris: A. Colins. contemporary “traditional” artworks mostly produced ______. 2011. Bamum. Milano: 5 Continents. Origi- in commercial workshops that populate the “cultural” nally published 2007. Van Wyk, Gary. 2013. Shangaa: Art of Tanzania. New section of this complicated institution (see also Forni York: QCC Art Gallery. Geary, C.M, and S. Xatart. 2007. Material Journeys: 2015). Collecting African and Oceanic Art, 1945–2000. Boston: Warnier, Jean-Pierre. 1985. Échanges, développement Museum of Fine Arts. et hiérarchies dans le Bamenda pré-colonial (Camer- oun). Studien zur Kulturkunde, vol. 76. Stuttgart: Franz Gebauer, P. 1979. Art of Cameroon. Portland, OR: Port- Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden GMBH. land Museum of Art.

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