A cast metal spoon of the Bamum. A smooth, rounded bowl with textured end panels is joined to a handle in the form of a slender standing woman, one hand raised to her head.

1. Form and Casting

The spoon is cast in a golden-brown metal with the look of brass or bronze. The bowl is ovoid and largely smooth, with a vertical ridge of twisted beading running along its length. At the neck end and at the opposite end, two triangular panels of fine cross-hatched texture are set off by beaded borders.

The handle is a tall, narrow figure standing on a short socket, with thin legs and a ring at each ankle. The breasts are shown, and a necklace of small beads lies on the chest. The long torso is covered with fine incised lines that radiate from the waist, and a short skirt with vertical striations hangs from a belt. The right arm reaches up to the head, the left hand rests on the hip. A small ring rises from the crown for hanging.

2. Use and Context

The collection catalogue explains how such spoons were used. A visitor to a chief, whether summoned or coming of his own accord, symbolically deposited his own power, the pouvoir, in the spoons handed to him by the chief or his nchinda, a kind of personal secretary, before the audience was granted. The visitor was thereby powerless, and the chief could deal with him as he saw fit. Such symbolic objects occur in various forms within a chiefdom and are still widely found in or near the chiefs' houses.

3. Surface

The metal has a warm, mottled patina, with polished highlights on the figure and darker tones in the recesses of the textured panels.

Summary

A cast spoon with a standing female figure as its handle, one of the objects with which, according to the collection catalogue, a visitor symbolically gave up his power before meeting the chief.