Babungo museum
Permanent exhibition
The Kingdom, myth, legend and history
Society and religion
Arts and technics
Artist and craftmen
Babungo, itineraries of collective memory.
Informations

Artists and Craftmen

The objects of the artistic heritage of Babungo have been crafted with extensive research and an expertise of materials by artists who are known and often highly respected in the kingdom and sometimes afar, using different artistic forms: sculpture, architecture, painting, basketry, embroidery, body art, iron technology etc. The regional and national renown of Babungo in the fields of sculpture, ironwork, textiles and bead embroidery comes from the great quality of the production of great masters who are still alive and others of the past.  
    Sculptors at work

 

Amongst the talented artists who have left us works of great value can be mentioned for example: Ndifuan Ngow, Ngong Siye, Nghawansai, Simbo Njinuh, Ndula Wangfung, Tah Wembai etc. who are still active; fon Zofoa II, fon Nyichikau, fon Nyifuan, fon Saingi II, fon Sake II, Tisah, Nchia Kumeghe,Simbo Melang, etc. who are no longer of this world.

An important part of society, the guardian of customs and in the avant-garde of innovation the Babungo sculptor has as his mission to transmit from one generation to the next , the artistic traditions of the community, to keep them alive and renew them from the inside, even using other media of expression if necessary. For this, he learnt the profession in the family compound or in the royal workshops where he received lengthy training. In addition, he underwent the initiation to produce cultural objects. His works reveal at one and the same time his personal view of life and the world on the one hand and on the other the elements of Babungo culture.

A smith at work    

The skill of the technology of iron is one of the great specialities of Babungo. The largest blacksmiths’ quarter is Finkwi where today some fifty compounds can be counted with an active smithy. Each of the smiths is specialised in the production of specific objects: weapons, hoes, ritual musical instruments, ceremonial canes etc. The smiths are reputed to keep their ancient customs more than the other inhabitants and occupy an important social position in Babungo. According to oral tradition, they were the first inhabitants of the region and the first two smiths are believed to have fallen from heaven, one carrying a hammer and the other a pair of bellows .

     
     

Royal spear (yenghau-ntoh)

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