Kids in the Courtyard: Setting the Table
What kind of meal would you eat if you were to dine with kings in Cameroon? Find inspiration in our exhibition Dining with Kings: Hospitality and Ceremony in the Cameroon Grassfields and learn how certain patterns signify a person’s power before designing a placemat to use during your next meal!
Missionaries visiting the Chief in Foumban. Photograph by Mr. Martin Göhring, 1907–1912 Basel Mission Archives/Basel Mission Holdings, ref. no. E-30.29.33
Parking available in UCLA Lot 4, 398 Westwood Plaza, directly off Sunset Blvd | $12/day
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About the Exhibition
Dining with Kings: Ceremony and Hospitality in the Cameroon Grassfields features royal vessels from the Fowler’s collection, and reveals the connections between food, culture, and power in the palaces of the Cameroon Grassfields. This intimate study of hospitality in the western area of Cameroon in the 19th and 20th centuries highlights the beadwork, textiles, embroideries, and carvings that embellish terra-cotta vessels, drinking gourds, small bowls, and drinking horns. The use of restricted iconography and prestige materials in the creation of such vessels speaks to their important role within palace culture and demonstrates the ways in which food is about much more than sustenance—it is about status, diplomacy, and hospitality.
