Standing Figure with Trophy Head Identified as Chief Appia

Bursting with vitality, this formidable conquering warrior is one of three male figures that appear to commemorate specific individuals. Following their triumph in battle and the founding of new villages, Mbembe leaders were immortalized through sculptural representations. This massive standing figure has been identified as Chief Appia (ca. 1529–1596), a great leader and founder of a village with the same name. Reputedly carved seventeen years before Chief Appia’s death, the standing figure holds a severed trophy head that is larger than his own. This sculptural tribute would have been positioned at the chief’s burial site in the center of the community, adjacent to his residence, and it was the focus of annual celebrations that kept his memory alive. The figure’s clenched, bared teeth, broad, squared torso, and muscular, rounded buttocks combined with the fractured surface of the wood’s grain imbue the form with a quality of sheer might.