For use in an undergraduate or graduate course in African Art; also suitable as a supplementary reading for art history surveys. Lavishly illustrated, this historically grounded text draws together key traditions from West, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa to present an informative and captivating survey of the most important royal arts in the great sub-Saharan African kingdoms. Exploring the diverse ways that African rulers employed art and architecture to define individual and state identity, it provides an overview of the major themes in royal African art and discusses what these arts reveal about the nature of kingship.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, artists working for the royal court of Bamum, in Cameroon, created elaborate bead-covered thrones and stools, wooden sculptures, masks in human and animal form, architectural carvings, and fine objects in bronze, ivory, and clay. This book focuses on the history, iconography, and meaning of these royal arts and looks at Western collectors who were fascinated by King Ibrahim Njoya (ruled 1886/7 to 1931) and the splendor of the royal court. Visual and written sources--including testimony by King Njoya and his courtiers, and extensive archival records--cast light on the strategies of a monarch who allowed visitors to acquire these arts to enhance the kingdom's reputation in distant Europe. The history of Bamum arts thus offers unique perspectives on African creativity and ingenuity, and European ways of collecting.

Tantalizing trivia. this Hitler, spoiling everything?"

Cameroon, in Central Africa, has been called Africa in miniature. It is characterized by exceptional social and ethnic diversity, with more than 250 ethnicities now forming five major regional-culture groupings. This volume is the first to encapsulate Cameroon's rich indigenous and modern customs and traditions in depth. The narrative emphasizes those aspects that define its modern nation, its peoples, the unique societies, their institutions, and various lifestyles. The origins of Cameroon's diverse culture are traced back to the various ethnic groups and languages as well as the influence of European colonialism, Christianity, Islam, and other external factors, including globalization. In each topical chapter, examples from ethnic groups are presented to give some sense of the variety of experiences. Cameroon has had a turbulent and eventful modern history with German, English, and French incursions, and students and general readers will be able to understand the current struggle for democracy post independence. The history colors the substantial coverage of the many topics examined, from education, to marriage and women's roles, sports, and holidays, daily life, the arts, and much more. This volume will stand as the definitive, accessible introduction to Cameroon and will be essential for building a well-rounded Africa collection.

Written as part of the Bambui Museum and Ecotourism Project (BMEP), this stunningly illustrated book introduces readers to the history of the Bambui fondom in the western Grassfields of Cameroon, and presents an exhaustive interpretation of the artistic and cultural heritage of the fondom. Initially conceived as part of an initiative launched in 2001 by Centro Orientamento Educativo, an Italian NGO, aimed at creating museums in some palaces of the Cameroon Grassfields, the book serves as a pilot endeavour towards addressing problems associated with antiques and other cultural assets such as theft and the illegal traffic of objects, the exploitation of poor fondoms by African art dealers and researchers from the West, and the lack of education about the different ways and means the fondoms could employ to transform these resources to the benefit of all. For anyone aspiring to learn about the rich and diverse art of Bambui, in particular, and the western Grassfields as a whole, this book will prove useful, especially since it is written by someone who has lived, and is still living, the Bambui experience.

Art is a major political weapon of our times. Today, peoples around the world use art to boost their own identity and to attack the ways others represent them. At a time of increasing intercultural exchange, art has become a primary means through which groups reinforce their challenged sense of culture.This pioneering book breaks with the tradition of the anthropology of art as the depoliticized study of aesthetics in exotic settings. Transcending artificial distinctions between the West and the Rest, it examines the increasingly significant relations among art, identity and politics in the modern world.Among the themes investigated by the contributors: - how African painters undermine racist stereotypes yet remain dominated by the Western art market - the role of anthropology museums in the perpetuation of the Western market in 'tribal art' - the internal and external political disputes underlying the 'repatriation' of cultural property.