Smoking pipes full of symbolism, the tobacco pipe from the Grasslands of Cameroon

Rookgerei vol van symboliek,
tabakspijpen uit de Graslanden van Kameroen

By Don Duco

Abstract: This article offers an introduction into the tobacco pipe from the Grasslands of Cameroon. It focusses on the ceramic pipes and describes the techniques of manufacturing, the ways of decoration and the meaning of the patters, also it deals with the influences among the different tribes. The last chapter is dedicated to the smoking habits, including the ceremonial meanings of the pipes. Also the dating of these curious objects is discussed.

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© Don Duco, Pijpenkabinet Foundation, Amsterdam - Holland, 1999.

Illustrations

1a. Basic shape typical for the tobacco pipe from Cameroon, the axes of the bowl and the stem are almost parallel, Grasslands, 1900-1950.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 10.066

b. Bowl opening and stub opening are situated next to each other. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1950.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 10.066

c Opening in the base of the pipe bowl to get rid of the moist from the smoke, a piece of cloth serves as a plug. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1950.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 10.066

2. Pipe with the characteristic ceramic bowl and a simple soft wood stem made from the branch of a tree. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1940.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 3661

3. Stem with the base enlarged and decorated with a geometrical pattern. Cameroon.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 4045

4. Stem with wood carving showing two rows of three standing persons. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1940.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 9730

5. Pipe bowl with a decoration in relief of a geometrical pattern and finished with a painting of metal oxids. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1950.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 15.682

6. Pipe bowl with ordinary geometrical pattern incised in the whet clay. Cameroon.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk

7. Pipe bowl witht geometrical decoration of so called diamond carvings as a result of what is left after cutting away certain parts of the clay. Simple upgoing wooden stem with thicker part to hold the pipe. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1930-1960.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 14.784

8. Pipe bowl with geometrical decoration of rings filled with grains. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1900-1940.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 6892

9. Pipe bowl with repetative geometrical decoration derived from the cola nut Cameroon, Bamessing, 1850-1930.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 14.418

10. Pipe bowl with round the bowl opening a series of leopards nails. Cameroon, Bamum, 1880-1930.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 14.338

11. Pipe bowl with stilized geometrical pattern derived from frogs. Cameroon, Bamum, 1880-1930.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 14.338

12. Pipe bowl with mask portrait on the front, the face showing the characteristic bulbous sides. Cameroon, Bamum, 1900-1940.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 3003

13. Pipe bowl with a standing human figure with stilized face and broad arms. Cameroon, Grasslands, 1910-1930.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 15.192

14. Pipe bowl with stilized animal figure, the claws on the chin. Cameroon, Bamileke, 1850-1910.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 13.508

15. The round and the oval eye. Cameroon, Grasslands.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 13.508, Pk 10.065

16. Example of a sharp carved and very explicit decoration. Cameroon, Bamessing, 1900-1940.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 15.484

17. The same decoration but now in a rather weak clumsy way. Cameroon, Bamileke, 1920-1960.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet collections Pk 14.762

18. Illustration from the encyclopedia with a tobacco pipe from the Grasslands of Cameroon, c. 1910.
Amsterdam, Pijpenkabinet documentations

Notes

1. Wilfrid D. Hambly, ‘Use of Tobacco in Africa’, Field Museum of Natural History, Leaflet 29, 1930, pp 24-25.

2. J. Trevor Barton, A Portfolio of Willliam Bragge and his Pipes of All Peoples, Letchmore Heath, 1991.

3. Racinet, Imprimerie Firmin Didot & Cie. Paris, 1879.

4. Robert Pritchett, Ye Smokiana, Pipes of all People, Londen, 1890.

5. Alfred Dunhill, The Pipe Book, London, 1924, p 181, fig 163. Bali fetish pipe.

6. Roma Mildner-Spindler, Rund um Tabakspfeifen, Afrikanisches Kunsthandwerk aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, Berlin, 1992, p 30. Missi photograph dated 1915 with ceremonial pipes. Also, pp 38-39, catalogue no. 7, collected 1906, catalogue no. 12, collected 1908, catalogue no. 8, collected 1908.