The Mambila live to the south of the Adamawa range, on either side of the Nigeria-Cameroon border.

The artistic productions of the Mambila have very specific characteristics. Masks, sculptures and also these terracotta objects depict concave and exceptionally expressive faces or snouts. There is no real knowledge of the circumstances in which these vessels were used and what they might have contained. However, Mambila wooden masks are usually painted with a red wood dust imported from western forests.  It is also known that the kiavia masks, of which there is also little knowledge about the circumstances they were used in, would once have also been made of terracotta.