Kaka Paternity, Nigeria

Michel Gaud Collection, Saint-Tropez

Sotheby's, London, Important African Art: The Michel Gaud collection, November 29, 1993, lot 95

European private collection

Sotheby's, Paris, November 19, 1999, lot 225 

Daniel Hourdé Collection, Paris, acquired at the above auction

Marie-Louise Bastien, Introduction aux Arts d'Afrique Noire, 1984, p. 228

By Alain de Monbrison

This Kaka figure is undoubtedly one of the most important, if not the most emblematic exemplar within the known corpus of sculpture produced by this people.

The Kaka statuary, often confused with that of their Keaka neighbours, originates from a group living along the border between Nigeria and Cameroon, in a region where artistic traditions are both rare and scantly documented.

This piece, remarkable in scale, represents a paternity figure, a typology that is extremely rare in African art and particularly specific to Kaka sculpture. In this type of work, the child being carried on the back of the figure introduces a powerful symbolic dimension, most likely connected to notions of filiation, social lineage and initiatory roles within the community.

The figure, with its anthropo-zoomorphic face, stands upright, its detached arms hanging dynamically along the conical torso. Its short, slightly bent legs and broad feet firmly planted on the ground are recurring stylistic features in the Kaka statuary, as is the sense of movement that lends the composition such a strong expressive force.

The round head shows a face of striking intensity: elongated, slightly hollowed eyes, discreet ears, a rectangular mouth with aggressive teeth, and a pointed beard all recall aesthetic conventions observed in other figures from this group. Two stylised horns, probably reminiscent of a buffalo's, crown the head and may hark to a spiritual or mythological dimension.

The surface is covered with a very crusty sacrificial patina, resulting from numerous ritual offerings. According to Pierre Harter (1994), “the worship of ancestors seems to occupy a central place among them. It falls under the purview of the Wantop, one of the members of the chiefly council, as part of the liturgies of the male mbir secret society.”

The substantial sacrificial patina, imposing scale and extreme rarity of this typology all contribute to make this sculpture a major exemplar of the Kaka corpus.