Bakwele, Gabon

The Bakwele, harassed by their neighbors-who, at the end of the last century, had acquired European rifles-were forced to flee east and settled in the northeast region of Gabon, between the Dja and Ivindo rivers. Each village consisted of about a dozen lineages, each one of which was headed by the family chief, who was in competition with other chiefs also hoping to run the village. Political power passed from one lineage to the next. Besides the war leaders of each lineage, called gen, settlements had "priests" as well as a "peacemaker," whose role was very important in this atmosphere of constant rivalry. He avoided direct confrontation to every extent possible. If village life became too difficult, a lineage would leave to establish another settlement farther away.

The internal cohesion of the village depended on the prestige and authority of its founder and the ability of the peacekeeper to maintain order. To reinforce unity, the Bakwele borrowed the beete cult from the Ngwyes; the cult's celebration was decided upon at a meeting of the principal chiefs of the lineage. The beete ritual, which lasted for a whole week, would open with the departure of able-bodied men into the forest to hunt antelope, whose flesh, seasoned with medicines, had to be eaten at a meal at the closing ceremony. During the hunt, women and children stayed in the village; after one or two days, ekuk masks would "leave" the forest, enter the village, and invite the people to come dance and sing. Ekuk means both "forest spirit" and "children of beete." This mask, with two large horns, represents the antelope. Throughout the preparation for the celebration, the village became progressively more animated as the hunters returned from the forest with their booty, and friends and guests arrived to participate in the performance of the rite.

A little later, another mask, the gon, announced by bells, would make its entrance; the women would immediately lock up all the domestic animals inside the huts; everyone would begin looking for shelter. Gon is a dangerous mask: chained with ropes, held up by young people, it carries five short spears in its hand, which it throws at anything that moves. It often even manages to free itself from its guards and hunts down the whole village. The wearer of the gon mask is nude-as opposed to the person dressed in the ekuk, who wears a wide skirt of fibers. But the lineage responsible for gon can only be identified by its attendants. By the end of the day, gon may have killed a few domestic animals, but these killings are ritualistic-there is no record of any person being hurt or killed. The mask is made in the image of a skull of a gorilla, an animal feared by the Bakwele because of its frequent destruction of their crops. The mask's forehead bulges; the lower, prognathic jaw usually has two long spikes. A median crest divides the forehead.

The success of the rite depended on magical substances and on the acquisition of skulls of ancestors of widely respected power. It was often necessary to borrow reliquaries from other villages. After gon's departure, the lineages whom he had attacked must either leave or submit to the authority of the one who wore the gon. His appearance, thereby, reinforced the position of the "leader."

The Bakwele do not have statues; however, sculpted plaques can be found inside huts, along with some beautiful bellows with handles sculpted into figurines.

Siroto, "Gon: A Mask Used in Competition for Leadership Among the Bakwele," in African Art and Leadership, D. Fraser and H. M. Cole, eds. (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972).

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