Punu

Originally from the Congolese region of Kassai, the Punu or Bapunu (plural of Punu), Bantu people, emigrated in the century XVIII to the south of Gabon progressively occupying areas of savannah and Ngunié basins. And although they are still present in a good number in the Congo it is mainly in Gabon where they are most represented, reaching the 25% of the total population of the country, which makes them the second ethnic group after FangFor a long time ethnologists have confused them with the Mpongwé because of the mukuyi masks. The social structure of the Punu is based on the exogamic clans that form independent villages, under the direction of a village chief or head of the land. The family regime is matrilineal and at the same time patrilocal, that is to say that the marriage lives in the house of the husband's father. But if the father of the family dies then they will go to live at the mother's uncle's house. It is the uterine uncle who is responsible for the education of the children of the marriage. The marriage is mainly contracted with a niece of the father's family and in that case the uncle of the bride recovers the dowry that she invested in her education. The inheritance was also transmitted by the uterine uncle. Each of the nine Punu clans, represented by the front rhombus of the mukuyi masks, are presided over by an ancestor. And these masks represent the mothers of the clan and their function is to establish a bond between the living and the dead by capturing the spiritual strength of the latter. They practice the cult of ancestors and protective geniuses and to establish social cohesion they resort to the initiatic societies being the mukuyi the most important. These secret societies help village chiefs to maintain social order and fight sorcery. As in many other villages, the twins, water geniuses, are the subject of special attention even though in times past one of them was killed to compensate for this disorder of nature and buried with many attentions to prevent it from the afterlife from harming the living.