Spirit of the Forest Ceremony
Cameroon Rainforest
This photograph was made during a several week trip into the rainforest of southern Cameroon, along the Boumba River, not far from the Congo border. The image is of a man from the Baka Pygmy tribe during a ceremony known as the Spirit of the Forest. He is holding the skull of a Bongo and reenacting a hunt that took place. The Spirit of the Forest ceremony is a celbration that is performed, often at the culmination of a hunt, in which members of the tribe take on the roles of the characters who participated in the hunt. One member, covers himself in leaves and foliage from the forest and emerges out of the shadows, crawling on all fours, completely covered by the foliage. He is the Spirit of the Forest, the physical emobidemnt of their belief in a superior being who created the forest and the world they know.
I have been back a few times since this inaugural journey, but it is my first impression of the country there that has stayed with me - a collection of flashback-like memories and strangely cinematic moments that are beyond my ability to organize into any sort of linear narrative. Certain light recalls to mind the exhaustion and boredom of two-day drives on forest roads, the smell of alcohol on the breath of a drunken army officer with malaria yellowed eyes at some unknown checkpoint somewhere.
I think of river crossings on old barges or dugout canoes, salmonella poisoning, forest fires and massive storms. I hear the violent scream of a silverback gorilla deep in the forest - shaking the trees, beating his chest, then vanishing. I think of rain, dust and bees; the reenactment of a hunt and a bongo skull dancing in the half light of the fire. I see a French bible and pygmies with sharpened teeth, dead elephants, 7.62mm shell casings and the barefoot track of a lone poacher. I recall stories of Loa Loa - the eye worm parasite and how the old timers used to pour paraffin on their feet after crossing rivers. I think of massive columns of ants and chimpanzees in the early morning mist and see logging trucks overturned on forest roads. The snakes - Green Vipers, Gaboon Vipers and a Mamba in the canopy. I see it all and I think I finally understand what Joseph Conrad meant when he said, “It was written I should be loyal to the nightmare of my choice.”
Tito West
Print Details
Medium: Archival Pigment Print
Material: Cotton Paper
Size: 24x30, 30x40, 40x50 or 50x70 inches
Limited Edition: Set of 3 Editioned Prints + 2 Artist Proofs
Signed and numbered in pencil on verso
Frame not included