Texte remanié de: Ph. D. thesis--Cambridge--University, 1990. Titre de soutenance : Mambila traditional religion : Sua in Somié. / Contient la trad. anglaise de la transcription de dialogues en langue mambila accompagnant des cérémonies traditionnelles. Bibliogr. pp. 245-260.

In 2010, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts accessioned a ritual gourd from Mambila peoples of Nigeria and Cameroon into their collection. Although ritual containers with similar configurations abound in different parts of the Cameroon Grasslands in Central Africa, the VMFA gourd presents particular difficulties due to the nature of its accumulation and the lack of scholarship on the Mambila peoples. Therefore, in this thesis, all the aspects of its accumulation have been considered in relation to the culture and belief system of the Mambila and their neighbors. Special attention has been paid to the interconnectedness of form, function, and meaning throughout the thesis in order to shed some light on the social, cosmic, and ritual significance of the gourd and its attachments.