FANG, GABON OR EQUATORIAL GUINEA

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Among the most significant objects in Fang metalwork are a type of heavy neck ring or torque called ngo. Cast in thick brass or bronze, they were decorated with incised designs and closed with a hammer blow around the throat. Once put on, ngo would remain worn until death. Similar torques were sometimes wrapped around the arms. 

‍Ngo were powerful symbols of social status and identity, and possibly had ritual significance. While they were worn by both married women and male warriors, some testimony from cultural elders indicates that the ornaments had a severe purpose concerning wives. Superficially they served as valuable adornment, but with their considerable weight and permanent attachment to the body, they helped ensure that, if a woman fled from her home, her escape would be hampered and her married status would be impossible to hide.

This handsome example shows admirable craftsmanship, shaped with a strong central ridge that bisects the length of the torque and incised geometric panels symmetrically deployed at the midsection. Here, curved outlines are interspersed with sharp, rectilinear shapes, generating an attractive, subtly flexing tension in the design.

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