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Fang Ngil African Mask
Fang people
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This article is about a central African people. For other uses, see Fang
disambiguation).
The Fang people, also known as Fãn or Pahouin, are a Central African ethnic group found in Equatorial Guinea, northern Gabon, and southern Cameroon. [2]
1] Representing about 85% of the total population of Equatorial Guinea, concentrated in the Río Muni region, the Fang people are its largest ethnic group. [3] The Fang are also the largest ethnic group in Gabon, making up about a quarter of the population. In other countries, in the regions they live, they are one of the most significant and influential ethnic groups. [4]
Language
The Fang people speak the Fang language, also known as Pahouin or Pamue or Pangwe. The language is a Southern Bantu language belonging to the Niger-Congo family of languages. [5] The Fang language is similar and intelligible with languages ​​spoken by Beti-Pahuin peoples, namely the Beti people to their north and the Bulu people in central. Their largest presence is in the southern regions, up to the Ogooué River estuary where anthropologists refer them also as "Fang proper". [2]
They have preserved their history largely through a musical oral tradition.
6] Many Fang people are fluent in Spanish, French, German and English, a tradition of second language they developed during the Spanish colonial rule in Equatorial Guinea, the French colonial rule in Gabon and the German-later-French colonial rule in Cameroon. [3 ]
History
The Fang people are relatively recent migrants into Equatorial Guinea, and many of them moved from central Cameroon in the 19th century. [3]
Early ethnologists conjectured them to be Nilotic peoples from the upper Nile area, but a combination of evidence now places them to be of Bantu origins who began moving back into Africa around the seventh or eighth century possibly because of invasions from the north and the wars of West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. [1] Their migration may be related to an attempt to escape the violence of slave raiding by the Hausa people, [1] [7] but this theory has been contested. [1]
The Fang people were victims of the large transatlantic and trans-Saharan slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries. They were stereotyped as cannibals by slave traders and missionaries, in part because human skulls and bones were found in open or in wooden boxes near their villages, a claim used to justify violence against them and their enslavement. [1] When their villages were raided, thousands of their wooden idols and villages were burned by the slave raiders. [3] Later ethnologists who actually spent time with the Fang people later discovered that the Fang people were not cannibalistic, the human bones in open and wooden boxes were of their ancestors, and were Fang people's method of routine remembrance and religious reverence for their dead loved ones. [1] [3] [8]
Society and culture
A head dress of the Fang people with embedded artwork.
They have a patrilineal kinship social structure. The villages have been traditionally linked through lineage. They are exogamous, particularly on the father's side. Polygamy was accepted in the culture of the Fang people.  The independence of villages from each other is notable, and they are famed for their knowledge of animals, plants and herbs in the Equatorial forests they live in They are traditionally farmers and hunters, but became major cocoa farmers during the colonial era. 
Under French colonial rule, they converted to Christianity. However, after independence their interest in their own traditional religion, called Biere, also spelled Byeri, has returned, and many practice syncretic ideas and rites One of the syncretic traditions among Fang people is called Bwiti, a monotheistic religion that celebrates Christian Easter but over four days with group dancing, singing and psychedelic drinks.
The art works of Fang people, particularly from wood, iron and steatite, are regionally famous. Their wooden masks and idol carvings are on display at numerous museums of the world. 
Art
The art works of Fang people, particularly from wood, iron and steatite, are regionally famous. Their wooden masks and idol carvings are on display at numerous museums of the world. Discovery of Fang artwork was source of inspiration for much of the European avant-garde artwork created during the 20th century. [] Much of the art is either used for their masquerades, or function as reliquaries and effigies. All are primarily made by the men of the village. [ There is reason to believe that many of these reliquaries were made during the Fang's migration as a form of burial which was also portable. 
Reliquary guardian head, Fang peoples, Gabon. Late 19th to early 20th century. Wood, metal, oil patina
Wooden heads
One of the most popular art forms attributed to the Fang culture are the wooden reliquary heads, many of which contain
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