British Cameroons 1937-42

56 x 84 mm. A girl from the N'Jarie Tribe from the N'Bombo Country. They have very elaborate tattooing on the body done by specialists with a pointed bamboo and ashes. Each cicatrix is a round dome, smooth and of regular size. A piece of bamboo is inserted into the nostrils. They used to practice cannibalism by setting traps of thin dust covered brushwood placed over pits or a chair set on the thinly covered pit in front of the house where the unwary traveller sat and fell in only to be set upon and in the end killed and eaten. Many Banso people say that this is still practiced but officially it does not now exist.

Indexed