Anthropos: Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

Anthropos, 101.2006+Ind.1906-2005(CD-ROM)

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschrift

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistenter Identifier:: BV043334262

Titel:: Anthropos

Untertitel:: internationale Zeitschrift für Völker- u. Sprachenkunde

Erscheinungsort:: Fribourg

Verlag:: Ed. St. Paul

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1906

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Wissensgebiet:: Sozial- und Kulturanthropologie > Allgemeines

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Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenband

Werks-URN (URL):: https://digi.evifa.de/viewer/resolver?urn=urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711879

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711879

Persistenter Identifier:: 1513674362149

Titel:: Anthropos, 86.1991,1/6

Erscheinungsjahr:: 1991

Signatur:: LA 1118

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

Zeitschriftenheft

Strukturtyp:: Zeitschriftenheft

Titel:: Bd. 86, 1991, Heft 1-3

Sammlung:: Zeitschriften und Zeitungen > Zeitschriften zur Ethnologie

The Establishment of the Princes’ Society in Oku, Cameroon 59 Anthropos 101.2006 cowry shells” (Argent! 1996: 236). 13 Some people refer to it as a mask with a “Rasta”-like hairstyle decorated with cowries. Cowries are a prerogative of the Fon and the royal family. It carries three spears and a baton. Like ijkiy it wears no ankle rattles. Its movements are erratic. It never walks but runs in short sprints. In the past it was used to punish wrongdoers with beatings. Even nowadays it brings down its hand in a heavy blow on crouching men, mostly initiated members, who somehow “feel honoured in the process of humiliation” (Argenti 1996: 236). The “running” mask attends funerals of all members of the royal family and it makes an appearance again on the second day, the day of celebration. Laabe also intervenes when a serious conflict erupts in a compound of the royal family (Mbele). Laabe is accompanied by an initiated member, usually of nchiy ndaa status, blowing a small wooden flute (see). During the reign of Fon Mkong Ndakoh (d. 1909) laabe was confiscated by kwifon following an incident involving its “running” juju. After the burial of Prince Kerning at Bow village, laabe did not return straight to the palace but entered the market which was being held on that day. In a wild frenzy it attacked people and wounded several of them. This action was considered very offensive, especially since fights are strictly forbidden in the market. Kwifon then dissolved laabe and confiscated its paraphernalia. After the death of Mkong Ndakoh, Ngek Zuelam succeeded. When he was taken into kwifon, he confessed that he had been the one who bore the mask of laabe during the incident at the market after the burial of Prince Kerning. Ngek Zuelam freely offered to pay a fine of five goats to kwifon. Kwifon then agreed to return the masquerade to the royal family under the condition that its “medicine men” were selected from members of laabe who were also members of kwifon (Koloss 2000: 191). The equipment of the runner mask is still in the custody and under the control of kwifon today but the costumes of the dancing laabe are said to be kept in ndaa r/kiy in kechiale. Laabe dances at old death celebrations in the palace. It comes out in a group of about twen ty maskers wearing feather headdresses. Its in struments consist of two drums, two slit drums, and a flute (kefurj), but no xylophone. Some times the Fon himself dances as leader (kam) of 13 Actually the gown is made of a type of sackcloth into which tiny patches of human hair are thickly inserted so that the cloth is completely covered with human hair. the masquerade at memorial celebrations. When he does, he wears a special headdress of white feathers resembling the special feather crown called fenon o mbor/ which a new Fon wears when he appears in public for the first time. As chiaamfa opens the activities of the royal mas querades at palace celebrations, so laabe closes them. Initiation into laabe takes place about every four years. There are three grades. The third grade (laabe ntok - laabe of the night) is associated with war medicine. “[It] honours the deceased King: during one of the nights following the official announcement of the King’s death, it plays its ‘terrifying’ music” (Koloss 2000: 192). Before the ndaa omyin (house, gods) in the palace was furnished with a pan roof, the lead dancer of laabe would throw his spear into the thatch of the roof at the end of the dance at palace celebrations. This was called laabe tom njor) (laabe shoot moon), most probably because the spear was thrown upwards into the sky, i.e., in the direction of the moon. 2.4 Nsum Although a kekum o ntok, nsum is looked after and kept in Faay Chung’s compound at Key on. Shey Alfred Ngwiy insists that the compound of Faay Chung “is only a storehouse (eychiaa) for the masks because the gowns are kept in the palace.” 14 According to Faay Ndintonen, nsum was created by Chung who gave it to his father Fon Kerning. The Fon accepted it but indicated that it should be kept in Key on, in Chung’s compound. Koloss (2000: 255), in another version, states that nsum was founded by Fon Ngum Tayeah who then gave it to one of his brothers whose successor became Faay Chung of Keyon. Faay Chung, although living in his own compound in Keyon, has a special relationship with the palace in that he never really separated from it. Death celebrations of his family are still celebrated in the palace and not in his compound. Nsum is a masquerade of about 25 wooden masks. According to one informant (Faay Ndin tonen) nsum and laabe are said to have similar medicines so that when one is initiated into laabe one has access to nsum. This is strongly denied by Nforme Ndula of Kfom. 14 One of the reasons given for this arrangement is that the masquerade cannot perform without the consent of the Fon.

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