Mambila Tadep figure
€480.00
In the Mambila tradition, religious life is centered on ancestor worship. The artistic corpus of the ethnic group is therefore sensitive to this. Thus, each village has a hut dedicated to ancestors. It is built on stilts and has a statue called Baltu. The ancestor statues are carved from very soft wood and sometimes painted with red, white and black pigments. They are called tadep or tadep dia and generally measure around thirty centimeters high.
This extremely distinctive African Mambila statue with its triangular face, its massive body resting on short legs and its short hair made up of sticks presents a characteristic erosion partly due to the low density of the wood in which it was carved.
This piece was collected by Hugues Dupriez certainly in the 1980s during one of his long stays in Cameroon. Hugues Dupriez, originally from Walloon Brabant (Belgium) was a pioneer in the practice of agroecology in Africa.
He has dedicated his life to assisting and training the most remote populations in Africa in the practice of resilient agriculture providing food security, decent income and respect for nature. During his many stays in Africa, he received many gifts from these populations.
Died in 2020, Hugues Dupriez left his foundation to succeed him. His children made the decision to part with their father's African art collection in order to donate the profits to the foundation.
Browse the collection catalog - Terre des Hommes Terre des Arts - Hugues Dupriez Collection
02494
Data sheet
- Presumed dating
- Circa 1970
- Size
- 34 cm
- Ethnic group
- Material(s)
- Wood
- Country
- Origin
- Hugues Dupriez collection, Belgium
- Condition
- Vintage
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In the Mambila tradition, religious life is centered on ancestor worship. The artistic corpus of the ethnic group is therefore sensitive to this. Thus, each village has a hut dedicated to ancestors. It is built on stilts and has a statue called Baltu. The ancestor statues are carved from very soft wood and sometimes painted with red, white and black pigments. They are called tadep or tadep dia and generally measure around thirty centimeters high.
This extremely distinctive African Mambila statue with its triangular face, its massive body resting on short legs and its short hair made up of sticks presents a characteristic erosion partly due to the low density of the wood in which it was carved.
This piece was collected by Hugues Dupriez certainly in the 1980s during one of his long stays in Cameroon. Hugues Dupriez, originally from Walloon Brabant (Belgium) was a pioneer in the practice of agroecology in Africa.
He has dedicated his life to assisting and training the most remote populations in Africa in the practice of resilient agriculture providing food security, decent income and respect for nature. During his many stays in Africa, he received many gifts from these populations.
Died in 2020, Hugues Dupriez left his foundation to succeed him. His children made the decision to part with their father's African art collection in order to donate the profits to the foundation.
Browse the collection catalog - Terre des Hommes Terre des Arts - Hugues Dupriez Collection