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Figure from a Meeting House Post

Culture Bawok
Culture Pati
Title Figure from a Meeting House Post
Date 1909–1914
Medium Wood and pigment
Dimensions Object: 39 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 12 in. (100.3 × 29.2 × 30.5 cm)
Overall: 39 1/2 × 11 1/2 × 12 in. (100.3 × 29.2 × 30.5 cm)
Credit Line Gift of John and Rita Grunwald, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University
Accession Number 74.32

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About this Work

This figure was once part of a column decorating the front of a men’s meeting house of the Bali-Nyonga kingdom in the Grasslands of western Cameroon. When the meeting house burned, some columns were saved, cut, and the figures sold. The carving shows a man wearing a hat—all free men were required to wear hats in public—as well as a decorated loincloth. He holds a drinking horn, used for palm wine, a mildly intoxicating beverage consumed on social and ceremonial occasions.


Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

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"Figure from a Meeting House Post | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=74.32