CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Oku Art
Art of the Oku kingdom in Cameroon's Grassfields: carved masks, royal figures and palace regalia made for the fon and masking societies.
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About
Oku is one of the kingdoms of the Bamenda Grassfields in north-western Cameroon, set around Lake Oku and the forested slopes of Mount Oku. Like its neighbours, it is headed by a fon, and its art centres on the palace and on regulatory and masking societies, including Kwifon, which enforces the ruler's authority.
Oku carvers are admired for bold wooden masks with large, rounded features, open mouths and swelling cheeks, worn with costumes of cloth and fibre at funerals and royal festivals. Royal commissions also include figures of rulers and their wives, stools and carved house posts, while beaded regalia signals rank. The work shares a Grassfields vocabulary of leopards, buffalo and spiders with nearby Kom, Nso and Babanki.