Kotoko Mounted Warriors from Chad by 

Dr. Daniel Mato
Professor Emeritus of Art History
The University of Calgary

The Kotoko were inheritors of an ancient people known as the Sao who
lived in the southern Lake Chad region as early as the fifth century
B.C.  Under external pressures the Sao through time moved into
northwest present day Cameroon settling in the hilly region where the
present day Kotoko claim them as ancestors.  Taking up traditions of
other immigrant peoples into their areas the Sao buried their dead in
large urns, a practice seen across a wide region stretching from the
Niger river through Chad, Niger, Nigeria and to the northern regions of
Cameroon.  Small mounted figures cast in bronze were made as funerary
offerings or memorials.  Mounted warriors rode horses, sometimes camels
and other unknown and imaginative animals. Often there were two riders
mounted on a single animal.  As in this example the horses often had
elaborate trappings of harness and saddle and the riders were portrayed
with spear and shield and wearing detailed headdresses, costumes and
jewelry.

Object References:

Lebeuf, J.P. and A. Masson Detourbet, La civilisation du Tchad. 1950.
Lebeuf, J.P, Archeologie tchadienne: les Sao du Cameroun et du Tchad. 
1962.
Jansen, G. and J.-G. Gauthier, Ancient Art of the Northern Cameroons: 
Sao and Fali.  1973.
J.-P. and A. Lebeuf,  Les Arts Anciennes de l’Ouest Africain.  1977

To see a large selection of African artifacts please visit our eBay store at Africa Direct.

All text and images copyright Africa Direct, Inc.  2006