An important and ancient reliquary figure of great expressive power belongs to the corpus of Okak figures made by the Fang, a Bantu people settled in the forest regions of Gabon, southern Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea. These sculptures were closely linked to the Byeri, an initiatory society devoted to ancestor worship. They were used to guard reliquaries containing human remains, acting as protectors and intermediaries between the living and the world of the dead. The figure, soberly stylized, presents a collected posture, with oversized arms resting at the sides of the body and an imposing head with powerful features and eyes marked with metal plates giving it a singular presence. The surface of the wood, polished and patinated by time and ritual handling, bears witness to its ancient and regular use. Like many Fang sculptures, this work evokes a silent interiority, a meditative presence, charged with meaning. This piece was acquired in Equatorial Guinea by Íñigo Xavier de Aranzadi Cuervas-Mons (1922-2003), an agricultural engineer, writer and ethnologist. A civil servant in the general government of the Río Muni province, he lived in the region for seventeen years from 1951. Aranzadi carried out ethnographic observation and documentation of rare precision, devoting particular attention to Fang art and oral traditions. His commitment led to the preservation of numerous ritual objects, as well as precious testimonies to local practices and cosmologies, in an approach that was both scientific and humanistic. With its formal beauty and symbolic depth, this Fang figure is part of the heritage of sacred African art, whose power has left a lasting mark on Western eyes, right up to the artistic avant-gardes of the 20th century. Fang, Rio Muni, Equatorial Guinea Wood, metal plates, nails, visible old wear, slight surface erosion, beautiful old patina from use and ritual. H. Height : 43.5 cm Provenance : - Collection Inigo Xavier de Aranzadi Cuervas Mons, Madrid - Antonio Casanovas, Madrid - Pace Primitive, New York - Private collection, France