The king of Mankon (Cameroon) dispenses bodily substances (breath, saliva, sperm) to his people and his wives. In the eyes of both the monarch and his subjects, these substances are intimately linked to ancestral powers at the origin of all life. This state of affairs is not a matter of archaism – a remainder of past practices still extant today. The king is a politician of national renown and a businessman as well. His platform, in both realms, calls for a conservative modernization in the context of a « return of royal authority » onto the forefront of the political scene in Africa. Perceived as a receptacle, he plays a central role in this setting : he stands at the heart of a body politic (a politics of the self and of the body) that draws on the resources of modernity.