On view
Sa (flywhisk),
early 20th century, before 1933
Before World War I, Sultan Ibrahim Njoya, who ruled Bamum Kingdom in present-day Cameroon, commissioned royal bead workers to create flywhisks for use during the annual Nja festival. The two male figures on the handle represent the king’s retainers and are adorned with the armlets, belts, and crescent-shaped hats associated with their position. This doubling of figures may reflect the significance of twins, who were sent to the palace by their parents to serve the king. Though finely crafted and richly covered in imported glass seed beads, this flywhisk features dark horsehair rather than the white customarily reserved for royal use. After assuming colonial control of Cameroon from Germany, the French terminated the celebration of festivals like Nja to suppress Sultan Njoya’s power. However, artists working in the capital, Foumban, continued to produce beaded objects, possibly including this flywhisk, for local and European clients into the mid-twentieth century.
Comparative image: Sultan Ibrahim Njoya of Bamum (r. ca. 1885–1933) in Foumban, Cameroon, ca. 1910. Holly W. Ross Postcard Collection
Information
early 20th century, before 1933
Africa, Cameroon, Grassfields
- Tamara Northern, The art of Cameroon (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, 1984), p. 58; p. 131; pl. 63
- Beaded splendor (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, 1994), fig. 13
- Alisa LaGamma, Echoing Images: couples in African sculpture (New York, New Haven, CT, & London: Metropolitan Museum of Art & Yale University Press, 2004), p. 48
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"Acquisitions of the Princeton University Art Museum 2016," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 75/76 (2016-17): 126-157.
, p. 146 - Christraud Geary, Bamum (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2011), p. 108; pl. 22
