Afo-A-Kom

Last updated
Afo-A-Kom

The Afo-A-Kom is a wooden sculpture, the foremost symbol of the Kom people of the North West Region of Cameroon. In 1966 it was stolen from Kom's royal compound. Seven years later it was recognized in a U.S. art gallery, and after some dispute, it was returned to the Kom people. [1]

The Afo-A-Kom, which means the Kom thing (also Mbang in the Kom language) is a 62.5 in (159 cm) wooden stylized carving of a standing man, crowned and holding a scepter, behind a stool supported on three carved buffalo heads. The core is iroko wood. His face is sheathed in copper and much of the body is covered with reddish and blue beads. (See the Arthemis link below for a photo online.) The Foyn/Fon (chief) cares for the statue, and it symbolizes "royal authority and the promise of continued succession." [2] The carver of this statue is unknown but it is speculated that Afo-A-Kom was carved by the second traditional leader (Foyn) of the Kom people in the 1920s.[ citation needed ]

In 1966, the Afo-A-Kom was stolen from its sacred grove at Laikom (the seat of the Kom people, where the Foyn resides) by one of the princes, then sold to a middle man who later sold it to an art dealer who took it to the United States of America. [3] [4] The Kom people believe that the Afo-A-Kom possesses mystical powers and that shortly after it arrived in the US it began disturbing its new owners by destroying everything around it. Its new owner took it and threw it into the sea but only to get back home and see the Afo-A-Kom.[ citation needed ] He took it to a New York art gallery where he sold it for circa 15 million CFA. While there it was recognized, and American art collector Warren M. Robbins raised an alarm. He raised funds together with other Americans [5] and some Kom elite in the US[ citation needed ] to purchase the stolen statue back from the Manhattan art gallery for under $30,000. [6] Returning the figure, Robbins was welcomed by the Fon of the Kom people Nsom Ngwe, and the President of Cameroon Ahmadou Ahidjo, among other dignitaries.

During the reception of the statue in Yaounde, Ahidjo suggested to Fon Nsom Ngwe that Mbang be kept in the National Museum in Yaounde, but the Fon replied that if the President can provide enough space in Yaounde for him to go and bring the Kom people to stay with it there, then he would accept the president's proposal. Seeing that Kom and the Afo-A-Kom were inseparable, the president made it possible for the statue to be taken back to its habitual residence at Laikom. It was briefly put on display at the Tourism Office in Yaounde and then transported by air to Bamenda. It was then ferried by a delegation of the dignitaries of the region back to Fundong where it was handed back to the Kom people.[ citation needed ]

It is now in the Laikom palace where it is put on display annually for the Kom people. [7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Afo-A-Kom.
  2. ↑ Ellis, p. 142.
  3. ↑ Blakeslee.
  4. ↑ Ellis, p. 141-145.
  5. ↑ Ellis, p. 145.
  6. ↑ Afo-A-Kom.
  7. ↑ Abang Njuosi.

Related Research Articles

Cameroon Country in west-central Africa

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. The country is sometimes identified as West African and other times as Central African, due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West and Central Africa. Its nearly 25 million people speak 250 native languages.

At the crossroads of West Africa and Central Africa, the territory of what is now Cameroon has seen human habitation since some time in the Middle Paleolithic, likely no later than 130,000 years ago. The earliest discovered archaeological evidence of humans dates from around 30,000 years ago at Shum Laka. The Bamenda highlands in western Cameroon near the border with Nigeria are the most likely origin for the Bantu peoples, whose language and culture came to dominate most of central and southern Africa between 1000 BCE and 1000 CE.

Centre Region (Cameroon) region of Cameroon

The Centre Region occupies 69,000 km² of the central plains of the Republic of Cameroon. It is bordered to the north by the Adamawa Region, to the south by the South Region, to the east by the East Region, and to the West by the Littoral and West Regions. It is the second largest of Cameroon's regions in land area. Major ethnic groups include the Bassa, Ewondo, and Vute.

Adamawa Region Region of Cameroon

The Adamawa Region is a constituent region of the Republic of Cameroon. It borders the Centre and East regions to the south, the Northwest and West regions to the southwest, Nigeria to the west, the Central African Republic (CAR) to the east, and the North Region to the north.

Bamenda Place in Northwest, Cameroon

Bamenda, also known as Abakwa and Mankon Town, is a city in northwestern Cameroon and capital of the Northwest Region. The city has a population of about 2 million people and is located 366 kilometres (227 mi) north-west of the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé. Bamenda is known for its cool climate and scenic hilly location.

Bamileke people Ethnic group of the Western part of Cameroon (West,Northwest and part of Southwest)

The Bamileke are a Grassfields ethnic group. They make up one of the largest ethnic groups in Cameroon and are natives of the country's western part of Cameroon. The Bamileke are subdivided into 106 groupings in the West region, 123 in the Northwest, and 06 in the Southwest, and each of them is led by a King or fon. In other words, the Grassfield peoples are both Anglophone and Francophone, and most of the second generation groupings derive from the Fussep, the oldest Grassfields group, who, together with the Bamun and the Nso people, are directly from the last unique Bamileke King (Ndeh) before the group scattered in the Tikar region.

Articles related to Cameroon include:

Kumbo Place in Northwest Region

Kumbo, also known as Kimbo, is the second-largest city in the North West Province of Cameroon and the capital of Bui Division. It lies about 2000m above sea level and is situated approximately 110 km away from Bamenda, on the Bamenda Highlands Ring Road. Kumbo has a population of 80,212 and is split into three distinctive hilly settlements of Tobin, Mbveh, and Squares. The town is known for horse racing and traditional medicine, and also for its palace, a market and two hospitals. Kumbo is the capital city of the Nso Kingdom of the Nso people. The lingua franca is Lamnso but Pidgin, English, Oku, Djottin, Fulfulde, and Hausa are spoken.

Simon Achidi Achu Cameroonian politician

Simon Achidi Achu was a Cameroonian politician who served as the prime minister of Cameroon from 1992 to 1996. Previously he was Minister of Justice from 1972 to 1975. A leading member of the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), Achidi Achu was appointed Chairman of the National Investment Corporation in 2003, and he was elected to the Senate of Cameroon in 2013.

LGBT rights in Cameroon Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Cameroon

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Cameroon face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal in Cameroon and LGBT people face stigmatisation among the broader population. As of 2020, Cameroon "currently prosecutes consensual same sex conduct more aggressively than almost any country in the world".

The Nso are a people of the Bamenda grass fields Northwest Region of Cameroon. Their traditional language is Lamnso and their capital is Kumbo – where the Palace of the Fon is found.

André-Marie Mbida

Andre-Marie Mbida was a Cameroonian statesman, a nationalist, the first Cameroonian to be elected Member of Parliament at the French National Assembly, a Prime Minister of Cameroon, the second African-born Prime Minister in Sub-Saharan Africa, the first Head of State of French-speaking autonomous Cameroon from 12 May to 16 February 1958, and the first political prisoner of independent Cameroon from 29 June 1962 to 29 June 1965.

Augustin Frédéric Kodock was a Cameroonian politician who was Secretary-General of the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon from 1991 to 2011. He worked in Cameroon's state administration during the 1960s and then worked at the African Development Bank through the 1970s. After a stint as head of Cameroon Airlines in the mid-1980s, he participated in the beginnings of multiparty politics in the early 1990s, becoming Secretary-General of the UPC. Allying himself with President Paul Biya, he was appointed to the government as Minister of State for Planning and Regional Development from 1992 to 1994 and then as Minister of State for Agriculture from 1994 to 1997. Subsequently, he was again Minister of State for Agriculture from 2002 to 2004 and Minister of State for Planning from 2004 to 2007.

Warren M. Robbins

Warren Murray Robbins was an American art collector, whose collection of African art led to the formation of the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian Institution.

Garga Haman Adji is a Cameroonian politician. He served in the government of Cameroon as Minister of the Civil Service from 1990 to 1992 and is currently the President of the Alliance for Democracy and Development (ADD), a minor political party. He is also a municipal councillor in the First Arrondissement of Maroua.

Bandrefam Commune and town in West Region, Cameroon

The Bandefram-Cameroon Chiefdom. Pronounced Ndiògfap in local language, this name means farmers of old vineyards.Although Bandrefam is the official name, the population of this chiefdom call themselves Kouo'shi,which means :emerging from the ground.
This name will take the form of Fab'gwe around 1921, then of Ndiògfap around 1928. Finally, the German colonists will call it Bandrefam, as it is known today.

Ernest Ouandié

Ernest Ouandié was a leader of the struggle for independence of Cameroon in the 1950s who continued to resist the government of President Ahmadou Ahidjo after Cameroon became independent in 1960. He was captured in 1970, tried and condemned to the death penalty. On 15 January 1971, he was publicly executed in Bafoussam.

Musart Gallery Ethnographic Museum in Kumbo, Cameroon

The Musa Heritage Gallery, is an art museum in Kumbo, Cameroon. It houses a collection of over 400 art objects that were mainly created between 1970 and 2000 and range from bamboo work to wood carvings, from basketry to pottery. Our museum is a place for exchanges and education, a place where arts open paths for better understanding of history and traditions from the Grass-fields region of Cameroon.

Theatre of Cameroon consists in the theatrical plays produced across Cameroon. Its history dates back to the pre-colonial time, but it has gained wide popularity since the 1970s, with practitioners such as Daniel Ndo, Dieudonné Afana and David Kemzeu. It is made of different trends, some of them are more inflected by the European theatrical tradition, some others are more attuned to the indigenous performative styles. The comic genre is presently dominating so that laughter has become synonymous with modern Cameroon theatre productions, according to Bole Butake. Theatre of Cameroon is sometimes subdivided in traditional theatre, colonial theatre, and post-independence theatre.

Sacred Heart College is a private Catholic primary and secondary boarding school for boys, located in Bamenda, Northwest Region of Cameroon. It is managed by the Archdiocese of Bamenda, and is known for producing some of the best results in the General Certificate of Education Ordinary and Advanced Levels in Cameroon. Apart from academic excellence, Sacred Heart College, like other Catholic schools, prides itself in the holistic formation given to students aimed at preparing them to be law-abiding and right-thinking members of a democratic and pluralistic society.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.