MEB 74-1

Research by: Sarai Martín López
Institució dipositària: Museu Etnològic i de Cultures del Món (MuEC)
Nº inventari institucional: MEB 74-1
Breu descripció institucional: Sculpture
Advertiment: Definition given in the institution's own inventories, which we do not necessarily share and which in some cases may be offensive or the result of prejudice.
Material: Not recorded in the museum's inventories
Advertiment: Terms used by scientific and academic institutions to describe the material collections held by museums of ethnology, natural history or zoology, which overlook other non-Western forms of designation and classification. While we do not necessarily share these terms, we nevertheless use them in provenance research such as this.
Mesures: Not recorded in the museum's inventories
Mètode d’adquisició: Donation
Advertiment: This refers to the process of acquisition of the object/specimen by the institution currently holding it, and not to the first transfer it underwent from its original context. If you have information that may be relevant to the provenance of the object/specimen, please write to comunicacio@traficants.org.

Lloc d'adquisició: Equatorial Guinea
Advertiment: Data extracted from the documentary collections of the institution, which may be erroneous or incorrectly transcribed. The historical toponymy (often of colonial origin) has been retained to give coherence to the research.
Place of production/origin: Koanoayop (Equatorial Guinea)
Advertiment: Data extracted from the documentary collections of the institution, which may be erroneous or incorrectly transcribed. The historical toponymy (often of colonial origin) has been retained to give coherence to the research.
Collector: Basilio Olaechea Orruño
Advertiment: The personal or institutional names that appear, often associated with the colonial order, may be offensive or the result of prejudice. These references are used to give coherence to the research.
Donant: Basilio Olaechea Orruño
Advertiment: The personal or institutional names that appear, often associated with the colonial order, may be offensive or the result of prejudice. These references are used to give coherence to the research.
Classification group: Fang
Advertiment: Data extracted from the documentary collections of the institution, which may be erroneous or incorrectly transcribed, and which we do not necessarily share. We keep a terminology (tribe, people, ethnicity, race, country, etc.), created or manipulated during the colonial period, to give coherence to the research.
Holder of the legal property rights: Barcelona City Council
Advertiment: Reference is made to the holder of the rights recognized by the legal and juridical systems of the former colonial metropolises, regardless of the property rights that may emanate from the communities of origin.

Summary of results

This is a portrait of a Fang person in the form of a statuette (mon-e-biang) for ancestor worship, made by the Ntumu carver Ndutumu Singó. The carvings were made to be sold to Western buyers without any ritual use. It was donated to the Ethnology Museum of Barcelona by infantry commander Basilio Olaechea Orruño, second-in-command of the Territorial Guard in Equatorial Guinea, in 1958. It was probably acquired in the village of Konoayap, in the demarcation of Ebebiyín, where Ndutumu Singó lived.

Chronological reconstruction of provenance

Estimation of provenance

Although it is not specified, it is likely that the object comes from the village of Konoayop, in the Ebebiyín demarcation. According to the information provided by August Panyella: ‘Ndutumu Singó himself […] although he lived in Konoayop—a village in the Ebebiyín demarcation, in the middle of the Ntumu area—he was from the Essatuk clan, of recognized Fang-Fang origin, and according to information gathered by word of mouth, he came from Gabon’ (p. 68). He adds that these Fang-Fang from the Ntumu area are called ‘Ekakuing’, because of the modulation of their voice when speaking, since they start in a high tone and end in a low tone. Although it is not possible to know in what condition Basilio Olaechea acquired this piece, it is very likely that it was purchased. Authors such as Víctor Borrego and Jordi Sabater Pi consider Ndutumu Singó to be the only carver that remained in Equatorial Guinea. Other collectors and researchers who have pieces by this artist include, for example, Íñigo de Aranzadi and James W. Fernandez.

Although there is not much information on this object, we know that August Panyella had commissioned, during the 1948 expedition, a couple of pieces from the same carver, who died in 1958. According to Panyella, with the carving that is the subject of this study, Ndutumu Singó ‘already reflected a portrait in the western sense, that is to say that although it was “almost” an ancestor figure, it did not reflect the spirituality of the souls of another world, but the face of a Fang of our time. It is very interesting to compare the aforementioned figure with the pair of ancestors carved by Ndutumu Singó in 1948, commissioned by me for the Museo de África in Madrid […]. These figures retain in their expression the reflection of ancient art and its expressive means’ (p. 66).

Possible alternative classifications

No alternative classifications are apparent. However, it would be necessary to contextualize the figure of Basilio Olaechea Orruño, in order to specify the circumstances of the acquisition of the piece, obtained through an exchange with a colonial administrator in Equatorial Guinea. It is also recommended that the name of the carver, Ndutumu Singó, be added.