Pierre HARTER - Arts anciens du Cameroun Lot n° 4050

HARTER, Pierre Ancient Arts of Cameroon Arnouville, Arts d'Afrique Noire, 1986. Fort grand in-8, bound in an illustrated dust jacket, 376 pp., many illustrations in black and colour. Pierre Harter was born in Paris on February 29, 1928. Very early on, he was interested in tropical peoples and regions. In 1952, a study trip to Black Africa brought him into contact with Cameroon for the first time. The keen interest turned into a passion, which materialized in the study of malarialogy, tropical medicine and dermato-veenerology, more particularly oriented towards exotic pathology. From 1956 to 1958, his incorporation took him to the French Congo, in the Central African Republic, and brought him back to Cameroon for a longer period of time. During this stay, which was more medical than military, he became enthusiastic, discovering local customary practices and related objects. The friendship of the Fon made him aware of the profound meaning of the sculptures, which too often collectors are content to consider for their simple plastic interest. An expert mission to South Vietnam occupied the next two years and was devoted to the reorganization of the fight against leprosy. On his return, he taught leprology at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, published Précis de Léprologie in 1968, and created with Prof. F.P. Merken the Certificat de Spécialité de Léprologie de Paris. In 1966, a mission entrusted by the French Association for Cameroonian Research and Studies (Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences of Bordeaux) made him go to the field again. Finally, since 1970, many course-stays have taken him back to Black Africa several times a year, not only to Cameroon, but also to other territories, notably the Ivory Coast, where he is currently interested in the organization of masks among the Goh and the Guéré.