An early Cameroun chief’s robe.

Chief’s prestige robe, Grassfields region, Cameroun, early C20th. Private collection, London. Front view.

This exceptional robe is tailored from hand woven hand spun indigo dyed cotton cloth that was woven in quite wide panels. The most probable source for this cloth would be the upright single heddle looms used by women weavers in many parts of Nigeria and the western part of Cameroun, although the cloth is of a looser weave and lighter weight than  is typical of Nigerian textiles of this type. The neck area is lined with a thin check patterned linen fabric that looks to be of French origin, while the hem and sleeve areas are dyed with a type of Central European patterned indigo cotton fabric called blaudrucke  - shown below.

Both the front and the back are decorated with hand embroidered designs in white, red, and yellow cotton. The large lozenge shape that encompasses the neck may perhaps be regarded as representing a necklace from which a giant bead or pendant is suspended. Small “double gong” motifs hanging from the “belt” area  are an early representation of what would become the dominant decorative motif on later Cameroun robes,  while the small lizards and other animals are quite a distinctive and unusual feature not typically found on robes even though they are part of the design repertoire of prestige sculptures and other royal artefacts.

Chief’s prestige robe, Grassfields region, Cameroun, early C20th. Private collection, London. Front view, detail.

Chief’s prestige robe, Grassfields region, Cameroun, early C20th. Private collection, London. Back view, detail.

Chief’s prestige robe, Grassfields region, Cameroun, early C20th. Private collection, London. Back view.

The construction of this robe from broad panels of hand woven indigo dyed cloth of uncertain origin compares closely to the robe shown below, which was collected before 1908 and is in the collection of the Museum der Kulturen, Basel.

“Cameroun: boubou bali, 198 x 130 cm. Collection du missionnaire G. Spellenberg (?), datent sans doute d’avant 1908. Collection de la Mission de Bale, Museum der Kulturen, Basel.” Scanned from Bernhard Gardi ed. Le Boubou –c’est chic (Editions Christoph Merian, 2000).

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