This is a modern version of a reliquary guardian known as a bieri. Originally, a bieri would have stood in the family home of a member of the Fang people to remember a deceased ancestor, often alongside a box containing the ancestor’s remains. The bieri was usually kept in the dark corner of the house and thought to have the power to avert evil influences or misfortune. Until the early twentieth century, the figures were also used in initiation ceremonies for young men, when the statuettes were removed from the boxes and paraded. 

Presented to Queen Elizabeth II by the Ambassador of Equatorial Guinea to the United Kingdom, Mari-Cruz Evuna Andeme, during an audience at Buckingham Palace, 24 October 2012.