Masquerade Headdress

In Cameroon's Grasslands kingdoms, headdresses such as this, as well as masks and prestige objects, display images of wilderness animals, expressing the power and supernatural basis of elite authority. This headdress, in the form of a buffalo-a wilderness creature of massive size and strength-would have been danced during funeral celebrations honoring either a Kom king or heads of an important title-holding lineage. The three chameleons at the crest of the headdress refer to a leader's supernatural powers of transformation and the ability to communicate with the spiritual world.

Gift of Drs. D. J.and L. W. Welling