TSONGWE

 

Region: North Katanga Eastern Kasaï SONGWE-010-020-030-040-050

The primordial twins: this monozygotic character has within him all the secret practices, and sacred of incest. “Janus”, the most important of the beginning of the Beneki reign. A native wrought iron of

+/- 7 cm square and regularly fed by the funnel (horn), which multiplies the protective energies, the purity of the blood and all the other creative fertilizing forces, revered by all.

Beyond the ethnic borders in Tetela territory to the northwest, is the Kusu, Binja, Luba and even the Watambulu. All were aware of these important statues. In the south with the Kanoyk and the Kalundwe, it was the same thing. Ngoy and Mukonkole, the most famous androgynous characters of the Songue reign

Height: 1.5 m

 

 

SONGWE-080-090-100-110 Region: KANANGA-KABINDA

Ethnic groups: NSAPO- BASANGA – BATEMBA – BELANDE – BENIKI – TEMPA DU SUD – PANIA MUTOMBO

The solar-headed N’Kishi, accompanied by his assistant advisers, the bird men (Katatora), is cunning and patient. Here in overload. He waits for the right moment to act. Warrior hunter, he protects the whole community. The word perfidy, often used by Westerners, is a serious error in judgment. Much appreciated by the Bushong elite of the Kuba kingdom who had a large number of them. His protective and avenging side was recognized by all.

The Shilele had similar statues, as did the Basanga. Height: 1.25 m

 

 

SONGWE-010-020-030-040-050-060-070-080-090

Region: North of Urua. Ethnic boundary Waguenia-wana tussago. Ethnicity: Luba

Sub-ethnic group: M’buli-barua History:

M’boko-kabila ka vidye. Woman called “The beggar”.

Under the pressure of the missionary fathers, confiscating, burning or throwing into the river any idolatrous representation of the Africans, the latter coaxed the various churches by changing the position of these very important characters of worship. By now making them on their knees, a pottery leaning on the front of the thighs. Originally, they were all seated on the hindquarters, the drum, the calabash or the large raku jar placed on the shins, their legs stretched out on the ground, their hands joined to the object. The symbolism of each character was characterized by a very personal and different position each time. The head and even the body turned substantially towards the lunar side (the left). Significant scarifications represented only on the back, sometimes a cavity with protective ingredients at the level of the kidneys and exceptionally some lines in front of the ears on the temples. The very straight back meant dignity, righteousness. The body leaning forward, the woman was powerful, quick in all her executions. Eyes wide open represented clairvoyance, the gift of double sight. Eyes half closed in an attitude of reflection demonstrated to think before acting. The swelling of the eyelids was evidence of consumption of the sulugu plant.

Wife of a king or an elite man, she was buried alive in this position next to her deceased husband on a voluntary basis. The pain of grief was more powerful than the fear of being buried and suffocated by the land that was a deliverance for her. Reincarnation at that time brought the certainty of returning among the living and their eternal trials. The various receptacles were filled with food for the journey in order to peacefully reach the world above or that below.

The master of “bouli” or that of the “three rivers” is a Western interpretation which still has a hard time. It is based on what the natives wanted to tell because the Church and the colonial state, considering these beliefs as impious, wanted to ban them completely.

The blacks had quickly gone underground. By turning to the secret societies that have multiplied to hide and preserve entirely the tradition and their millenary knowledge by the guardians in osmosis with the natural elements.

Anonymous workshops of sculptors completely sheltered from the curiosity of the white man, these places hidden from all, were located in a very wide triangle: Along the Lukuga river, further north towards the Lufukuta and along the Luapula which joined the Kamolodo (the Lualaba).

M’Buli, a very small village, was enclosed to the North by Mukatende, to the South by Makae-Laba and in the East by Kasolo where work sculptors of drums, masks, statues, prestige sticks, spear handles and knives were hiding.

Witch doctors, blacksmiths, soothsayers, etc. were invisible at the time. They never came out.

The sculptor of “Bouli” of which the museum of Tervuren speaks was at that time, for the majority of the natives, contaminated by his innovation, as in Europe in the 18th century where the Louis XV style disappeared radically supplanted by the Louis XVI style.

Kneeling women were rejected by the antecolonial generation.

Each character made in very hard wood like the crossopteryx weighs between 6 and 7 kilos. The kneeling woman, made from coconut or palm wood, weighs less than a kilo.

Today Lamboko has changed in usage. She must attract to her among the future initiates the one who will have the ability to become a soothsayer. His essential quest being to find the shining stone in the sacred wood. This first objective achieved will calm, with the immense power of seduction of the priestess.

The character holds the gourd with full hand, it signifies the endless waiting in the suffering of her sick husband whom she is ready to follow faithfully.

Seat height: 50 cm. Kneeling: 40 cm.

Closed gourd: 25 cm. The pendant: 11 cm. return

 

 

SONGWE-060-070

Region: Kabinda Ethnicity: Been’Ekiiye History:

M’zee, the old one, the one who knows, the one we listen to. His undisputable experience and constant contact with the world above and the world below make him an earthly messenger of primary importance. The sagittal crest covers the entire fontanelles to protect them from negative influences. Substitute for Efile Mukulu, the god of the Basongwe. Presented in the common box, we lie flat on our stomachs on the ground, arms stretched forward, as a sign of deep respect and obedience at the foot of the man we call N’Doshi the Great. It is never worn, it is respectfully seized with both hands by the oldest guardian of the tradition or by an epileptic or postmenopausal priestess.

Height: 69 cm. return

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-120-130

Region: South East of Kongolo Ethnicity: Songue

Sub-ethnic group: Bena-Paye History:

This feminine (lunar) face is the Kikashi spirit. The mouth, a meeting point, is also the entrance and exit of the hive. This object is worn by a menopausal priestess during initiation rites of the fertility of the fields.

Height: 45 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-130

Among the Basongue, the types of wood used are different for masks and for statues. They depend on the use of the object and on the sacred or playful representation. Yellow mahogany, ficus (40 m), mangrove, crossopteryx, false cotton. Very often for masks, it is ricinodendron africanum. For woods that cannot break: handles of axes, spears, adze is also used, musasa muri and limbali.

 

 

SONGWE-140-151-150

The one we hear the voice of, delivering the teaching of the ancients beyond the tallest trees in the forest, as through all the great spaces of the wooded savannah, is only used during the periods of the rainy season.

 

SONGWE-160

Region: Sentery Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki Sub-ethnic group:

History:

This feminine face has vertical lines on the forehead which are supported by the eyebrows, in the very abstract form of the gushing fountain (fertility). Two sons of the cosmic spider support the square mouth (the house) at the level of the temples. The cross (living space) on the mouth spreads out at the four cardinal points (the crossroads). This mark also represents respect for the secrecy of the education received. The unfolded feather that completely covers the chin of this female lunar crocodile has to do with plants along the banks, which are used to braid certain sacred objects.

Height: 40 cm. return

 

 

SONGWE-170

Region: Kongolo-kabalo Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki History:

The classic solar Kifwebe. The high ridge is always masculine. Here the object is stripped naked, so it was kept asleep in the sacred house.

Height: 50 cm. return

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-180-190

Region: Kasongo-Mulongo-Malemba N’Kulu-Manono Ethnicity: Kusu-Songue

Sub-ethnic group: Songue-Luba History:

This character is here with all his “charges” in full. Hollow base to be placed on a pillar in the centre of the box during deliberations. He is an incorruptible witness before whom lying is prohibited. He has a lion’s claw on the fontanelles.

Height: 63 cm.

 

SONGWE-200-210

 

Region: East Lomami – North-South border of Luba territory

Feminine lunar, the quarter of the moon on the generally open mouth is absent here. The pod of the baobab fruit are the lips that tighten the tongue, imposing silence on initiates who have already completed several routes.

 

 

SONGWE-220-428-429

Region: Kogolo-Kabalo Ethnicity: Songue-Bena Bayashi

Sub-ethnic group: Benapay group in the far south near Luba Hemba. History:

N’Kongolo buried in Lomami in a sacred wood near Mwadi.

He created the first Luba kingdom. He was of distant Kuyambula-Beneki origin, who came from the Azande-Mangbetu country along the borders of Kuba territory.

Very friendly contacts with the elites of this Bushong kingdom. In permanent war against Arab slavers and some of their Azande-Mangbetu allies.

The notable Tshites and those of Nyimi descendants of the same Bambala group were very friendly before the arrival of the Westerners.

The powerful and very secret Bukishi brotherhood was linked to the Bwadi Ka Kifwebe. Inside there was another formidable parallel power, the Masende. He dealt exclusively with criminals, thieves, rapists, etc. This justice society had in its members soothsayers using Buenga composed of Bijimba (various substances).

The patriarch had the emblem. He knows that it is about a reincarnated passed by the cosmic tree, it is as alive as any being of the ethnic group. Only the great visionary initiates have the capacity to dialogue with him. The omens which he foreshadows are always taken seriously because they generally take place over time. It is the obligatory passage between all the dialogues coming from the sacred wood to which men are always very attentive.

 

 

SONGWE-230

Region: Mulongo-Manono Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki Kifwebe History:

Khaka Muadi shield-panel: door of the snake hole in which the initiate, during his internship, must spend a night buried vertically without the possibility of moving, his feet sunk in about thirty centimeters in height of non-venomous snakes. This Gabo must also protect him from a night attack before entering, at sunrise, for the continuation of the Bukishi ceremonies.

Height: 55.5 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-240

Region: Mulonguo

Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki Kifwebe History:

Kieuzi. Gabo of the four regions, also a door of protection against the nocturnal external spells of the future initiate. Cosmic vibrations are everywhere in the figuration of Kifwebe culture, sensitive to natural perceptions, a Van Allen belt felt instinctively long before modern space science. Terminal initiation stage.

Height: 53 cm.

 

SONGWE-250-251-252

Memory of the Ibis of the Nile at the time when the black pharaohs ruled Nubia. Used during very important ceremonies intended to protect important displacements in dugout vessels, which can contain more than 150 paddlers armed to the teeth. Very related to the forces of liquid elements, rivers, lakes, swamps …

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-261

Region: Kabinda Ethnicity: Baami-Lembwe History:

Left: reward spirit accompanying its owner throughout his life to bring him luck. Was sacred during the first passage of a rite of entry into a secret society.

In the centre: character generally hung on a N’Kizi (080 and 090)

Right: the square mouth (the house) also protects all those who live there. We ask him about everything that has to do with food.

 

 

SONGWE-260-270

Village chief stool. The woman supports the entire vault on which the whole community lives and breathes within the limits of her living space.

Height: 42 cm

 

 

SONGWE-280-290

Region: Kongolo-Tshofa-Sentery Ethnicity: Songue-Kifwebe History:

These faces were used as echoes of the voices of the spirits along the Lomami river during nocturnal ceremonies, at the very beginning of the dry season. Also fertility mask to promote births.

On the left the lunar, on the right Kilumi, the solar.

Height: 40 cm and 35 cm respectively

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-300-310

Region: Kasongo Ethnicity: Songue-Kusu

History:

Entrance pillar of a postmenopausal priestess. Blood, urine, excrement, beeswax, etc. The character protects women against all stomach problems.

Height: 81 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-330-340

Region: Kabinda (South-West) Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki History:

The bikoko (drawing on the face) shows a character highly qualified to attend debates in a secret society (judgment of a criminal, a thief, a rapist, etc.). The overall reading here is very complex: hunter, warrior, soothsayer or blacksmith of the bukishi. Secret master of Strychnos used during ordalies.

Height: 69 cm.

 

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-370-380

Region: Kabinda Ethnicity: Beneki History:

The anamorphosis of the head is directed to the left, on the lunar side. This is particularly visible when the character is seen from the front. The horns (funnels) are obstructed and filled with protective material. The character is saturated to give him a formidable but very positive energy for the subject sending him a request. The horn in the ear is used to avoid shaking of the head. It cannot be presented in the light of day and remains huddled in a corner of the sacred hut and is used to support a request for all inhabitants of a village. If the brotherhood of wise men remarks negative events on his part, he will be ritually beheaded and burned.

Height: 77 cm.

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-390 BENA PAID

Region: KABALO H: 29 cm

Protection against two-headed births. Among the many genetic anomalies, which can occur as in regions with too intense cobalt radiation (SHINKOLOBWE – KATANGA)

(negative tellurism for all animal life)

 

 

 

SONGWE-400

Region: Munongo-Malemba N’Kulu

Ethnicity: Songue-Beneki History:

Commemorative but also protective character, placed in a corner of the house at the level of the sleeping mats always very close to the neck rests.

To be born with the envelope (the veil) on the head is a sign of reincarnation of a great character intended to be directed from the first stages of initiation towards the path of a blacksmith, a diviner but also of a great warrior hunter.

Height: 51 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-410

Region: Kabalo Ethnicity: Songue History:

The one that Efile Mukulu has not yet recalled in the world above. This sage still has much to teach. The mouth revealing the exit of the forge bellows shows that its teaching is essential. Reading the position of the character and his personalized facial bikoko is understandable only by an insider in terminal phase. The strands of the beard on the chin are widespread among the Baluba Hemba.

Height: 36.5 cm.

 

 

SONGWE-411

Region: Kongolo Ethnicity: Wagongongwe Sub-ethnic group: History:

Representation of hyper-androgyny.

The character is as much lunar as solar, bringing double power to the person born in this condition. It is possessed by spirits and therefore untouchable for the living. He can be declared “abnormal” by an opposing ethnic group and killed. That’s why he hardly ever leaves his village.

Height: 52 cm.

 

 

SONGWE-412

Region: Mulongo Ethnicity: Songue-Luba History:

Beneficial protective character of the family to whom everyone turns on their knees during a wish. Hidden in the roof of the hut.

Height: 42 cm. return

 

SONGWE-420

Drum by the river. The WAZIMBA of Lega, antelope skin and Luba drawings, taken up by the song… H: 33 cm

 

 

SONGWE-440

SONGWE BENEKI

Region: KABINDA L: 42 cm

Extremely rare BWADI ceremonial pipe in Tugula root. Only the ancients could touch it and carry it on the hip.

It was the reporter of what the ancients said, dialoguing with the trees of the sacred forest. Heard only by insiders.

The mouth in the quarter of the rising moon, by its smoke gave images that only the ancients could interpret.

 

 

 

 

SONGWE-441-442

Region: Kabinda

Ethnicity: N’Kuba (very discreet sect) History:

Thunderstorm. Catalyst to call for the onset of rain at the end of the dry season.

A native block of iron is inside the horn to summon lightning. Brandished at the top of a hill by a slave designated by the witch doctor.

Height: 88 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-450

Royal emblem (papyrus leaf) ancient origin, prestige emblem of Nubian pharaoh. Beneki accompanied by personalized belt masks.

 

SONGWE-460

Region: Lusambo

Ethnicity: Bakwa N’Koto History:

Knives (passports) of notables personalities worn on the belt, in a visible way.

Height:

Left = 31 cm. Center = 35 cm. Right = 31 cm.

 

 

 

SONGWE-461-470

Songwe-Luba

Ceremonial drum of things never finished. Symbol of the imperfection of the terrestrial world. The influences of nightlife are found on the foot. The buffalo leather handle, twisted, comes out of the eyes on the foot of a nocturnal entity. It is attached to the human face by entering through the ears.

Height: 40 cm.

 

 

SONGWE-480-490-491

H: 56 cm

 

SONGWE-500 BENA PAID

Region: KABALO H: 24 cm

Against leprosy, smallpox, measles, smallpox …

 

 

SONGWE-510

H left: 56 cm H right: 54 cm

 

 

SONGWE-530-540 KIEUZI

Region: MULONGO H: 53 cm

Gabo of the four regions, also protective gate. Cosmic vibrations are everywhere. A VAN HAELEN belt felt instinctively long before modern space science. And through the indisputable quantum mathematics.

 

 

SONGWE-520

Luba-Songwé moon mask

28 cm, the crocodile uncle, the old man of the big snake ( the river). 30 cm, the fastest in the race, in combat until exhaustion.

25 cm, the guarantor of secrets forbidden to future initiates. The sign of the invisible. The superimposed gushing fountain which symbolizes the flow of knowledge that the one who wears this face possesses. Here the mouth of prohibited revelations.

 

 

MANGBETU-034

H : 48 cm. The aunt matriarch of the clan.

 

Mangbetu-035

From left to right: 42 cm – 48 cm – 68 cm – 53 cm – 49 cm The whole family.

 

 

Mangbetu-037

Length: 40 cm – Height: 18 cm

Pipe that no young person would dare to touch for fear of serious consequences.

 

 

Mangbetu-038-042-43 H: 60 cm

Hunter warrior with one arm showing an old disabling injury. The statue is supposed to give back all the flexibility and strength of its member.

 

 

Mangbetu-040 H: 30 cm

Royal emblem.

 

 

Mangbetu-041 H: 60 cm

Ritual Tam Tam ritual for communication when placed by the river.

 

 

Mangbetu-486

H: 30 cm

Pottery – RAKU. The mangbetu whose sculptures and potteries are famous in the UELE-ITURI region, even beyond to the West, were involuntarily locked in a region over-saturated with various ethnic groups as elsewhere along the old colonial borders . Even today, the nations of Africa, through hundreds of ethnicities and sub-ethnicities straddling their borders, are constantly suffering from the Berlin Wall syndrome. This again and again leads to ethnic wars, no longer essentially for living space but for political, economic and religious ideas; for which, in our era of globalization, the West has obvious responsibilities.

 

 

 

 

BEMBE 044-045-046-047

Height: 60 cm

The guardian of the waters of the river, lakes and ponds. It is he who throws the substance of the épony flower into the water to stupefy and put the fish to sleep, which loses all notions of orientation. The substance acts in such a way that the swim bladder does not function anymore. The fish struggles with its stomach in the air. The gourds in each hand are planted in the bottom of the water when it is a pond. Fishing can begin. Up to 500 villagers jump into the water with traps, nets and gourds floating next to the fisherman. The biggest fish, real monsters that sometimes swallow children, weigh from 600 to 1000 kg. It takes up to 10 men to master one.

On the guardian’s hairstyle here present, appears the famous catfish, status emblem. Complete statue not vandalized as they have often been in the West, because of greed. BEMBE 048-049

Left: 33 cm – Priestess menopaused, with the labret on the lower lip; the drugs protect the belly. The very low breast in the form of accessory udders, shows the advanced age of the person.

Right: 33 cm – A chef in his seat, the eyes are ivory like on the priestess. The hairstyle is identical to the crocodile’s tail. The scrotum practically covers the penis. The hands resting on the knees show the uselessness of using them for a chief.

 

 

 

 

 

Warega-019

Blood ritual: initiation exclusively destined to adults. Very secret practice.

Between UFINDI and L’EFILA there has always been Rega, Genia, Lega. Their villages are Kailo, Kaseka, Kalima, Musunzu, Avuange, Shabunda, Kaniuki, Lakavia. They are surrounded to the North by the Kumu and the Nyanga. To the East, there is Hunde, Havu, Shi, Fulero, Nyintu. To the South, the Beembe, along Lake TANGANIKA. In Kasongo, the Bangu-Bangu, the Hemba, the Boyo. In the West (KASAÏ, Muluba), Luba, Binja, Kusu, Tetela.

Heading North to Kindu, is the NGengela, Songola, Langa, Binja from the North, bordered to the East by Metoko and Lengola.

All this so that we realize the complexity concerning the cultural influences of each ethnic group and sub-ethnic groups on objects whatever they are. Starting with the style of the dwellings. The utmost caution and humility is required for any researcher interested in humans from these regions. In the era of DNA, it would be interesting to discover the genetics of all ethnic groups, which could lead to finding their true origins and their common ancestors.

Left: the mask after the victory against the 16 MWELE (claws) and the DINIO (teeth) of N’GOZI the leopard.

Right: M’Balu the festivities, the most sacred in Lega begins at the first quarter of the moon.

 

 

 

Warega-020

The mask of N’Zala (hunger, eating). Under his appearance of PISHI (cook), the KINIEMBE: one who punishes evil by eating the heart and the liver as part of a court decision (ordeal).

 

Warega-024

The MUMINIA: the mask of the elite. Preciously kept in the sacred hut.

 

 

 

Warega-025

Belt IDIMUs – (TULIMI)

 

 

Warega-026

LUKUNGU, VISOZI tears, KABALI grief: M’Balu’s bad mood.

 

 

Warega-027

The double view. The village sentry. The one who warns of what is going to happen.

 

 

 

 

Warega-028-029

This face mask is worn during endless dances, at the sound of drums, at night in the light of the fires.

He honours the hunter; while the animal was still standing, he had the courage to take the tail

between his teeth. At the very moment when M’BOGO, the buffalo, fell under the spears, the tail was dropped and an apology was made by all the attackers, who thanked the beast with gratitude and respect. Among the KINDIs and also the IANANIs, the sixth grade assisted in the distribution of meat.

 

 

 

Warega-031

The KULUNGU: used during a BWAME concerning the red monkey. One is eaten and the other is revered.

 

 

 

Warega-033

WAKBANGO drum used during a BWAME ceremony in tribute to KALAGA, to thank him for having given the Lega, M’Balu their protective mother (the moon) as soon as darkness comes; and thus protect it from the laws of white harsh repression. Prohibition to practice ancestral beliefs, accused of being sectarians, and recurrent harassment concerning the hunting of leopards, monkeys, birds, etc.

 

Warega-050

Box IDIMU (NUYMBA)

 

 

Warega-325

Height: 45 cm

Fertilizer character. IBULUNGU

Apart from the creative mother M’Balu (the moon), the tree in relation to the world above is the general support for the balance of the whole ethnic group. He is also MOLAZI M’BEZI, MONGEMBE,

the big blue monkey that moves upright. He’s Brother Warega from the forest. The guard who warn them by shouting that the leopard is hidden in the bushes. Lega says it dances and sings when it rains. He is very feverish as the storm approaches.

 

 

Bena_lulua_327 Height: 49 cm

Death mask. Classic face used after the funeral. Held by the handle on the chin, it is sometimes removed and replaced in front of the dancer’s head, covered with raffia and painted with kaolin.

 

Bena_lulua_328 Height: 33 cm

Face with a high initiation power. Used exclusively in the forest and at night, during a full moon in the centre of 4 lights lit successively by the bearer of this spirit.

 

Bena_lulua_329-330 Height: 40 cm

Region: between KASAÏ and URUA

 

The soothsayer: all the scarifications represented on his body, are a true reading of the responsibilities which fall to him as guardian of the respect of the practices of the tradition among the future initiates. Note at the back, the head covered by a headdress similar to the Bakuba’s headdress and the double-headed snake on the back representing the duality between the forces of evil and good.

 

Bena_lulua_331 Height: 22cm

Personal object worn in the belt to be protected from famine and to be lucky in hunting.

 

 

Bena_lulua_363 Height: 24 cm

Personal hut statue placed near the bed to give advice during sleep.

 

Bena_lulua_372_373 Height: 70 cm

Mortar for use of medicinal substances, which are at the same time intended to amplify the energies of this character beneficial from all points of view for the whole of the multitude.

MULUBA influence of KASAÏ

Region: North of Urua. Waguenia-Wana Tussago ethnic limit. Ethnicity: Luba

Sub-ethnic group: M’buli-barua History:

M’boko-kabila ka vidye. Woman called “The beggar”.

Under the pressure of the missionary fathers, confiscating, burning or throwing into the river any idolatrous representation of the Africans, the latter deceived the various churches by changing the position of these very important characters of worship, now representing them on their knees, a pottery leaning on the front of the thighs. Originally, they were all seated on the hindquarters, the drum, the calabash or the large raku jar placed on the shins, their legs stretched out on the ground, their hands joined to the object. The symbolism of each character meant a very personal and different position each time. The head and even the body turned substantially towards the lunar side (the left). Significant scarifications represented only on the back, sometimes a cavity with protective ingredients at the level of the kidneys and exceptionally some lines in front of the ears on the temples. The very straight back meant dignity, righteousness. The body leaning forward, the woman was powerful, quick in all her executions. Eyes wide open represented clairvoyance, the gift of double sight. Eyes half closed in an attitude of reflection demonstrated the thought before acting.

The swelling of the eyelids was evidence of consumption of the sulugu plant.

Wife of a king or a member of the elite, she was buried alive in this position next to her deceased husband on a voluntary basis. The pain of grief was more powerful than the fear of being buried and suffocated by the land that was a deliverance for her. Reincarnation at that time brought the certainty of returning among the living and their eternal trials. The various receptacles were filled with food for the journey in order to peacefully reach the world above or that below.

The master of “Buli” or that of “three rivers” is a Western interpretation which is still questioned. It is based on what the natives wanted to tell because the Church and the colonial state, considering these traditional beliefs as impious, wanted to ban them completely. A large number of objects had already been destroyed or confiscated.

The blacks had quickly gone underground. Turning to secret societies that have multiplied to hide and keep their millennial knowledge in osmosis with the natural elements, as preserved entirely by the guardians of the oral tradition.

Anonymous workshops of sculptors sheltered from the curiosity of the white man. These places hidden from all, were located in a very large triangle: Along the Lukuga river, further North towards the Lufukuta and along the Luapula which joined the Kamolodo (the Lualaba).

M’Buli, a very small village was enclosed to the North by Mukatende, to the South by Makae-Laba and to the East Kasolo where the sculptors of drums, masks, statues, prestige sticks, sleeves spears, knives, etc. were hiding to work. Each object had to pass a very complex birth ceremony, especially for the masks and statues, performed in duplicate for the purpose of the practice of reincarnation.

Witch doctors, blacksmiths, soothsayers, etc. concealed their activities and made themselves as invisible as possible in the face of the colonial realities of the moment.

The famous sculptor of “Buli” of which the museum of Tervuren speaks was at that time, for the majority of the natives, contaminated by his innovation, as was the case in Europe in the 18th century, where the Louis XV style disappeared, being supplanted by the Louis XVI style .

On the other hand, the kneeling sculpted women were rejected by the ante-colonial generation. Those who were called traitors, but some of whom returned to purify themselves thanks to witch doctors, took advantage of the advantages that white fathers promised to converts. The old proverb: “divide and conquer”.

Each character made in very hard wood like the crossopteryx weighs between 6 and 7 kilos. The kneeling woman, made from coconut or palm wood, weighs less than a kilo.

During colonial times, the M’boko changed its customs. Even now, she must attract to her among the future initiates the one who will have the ability to become a soothsayer; his essential quest being to find the shining stone in the sacred wood. This first objective achieved, will calm the immense power of seduction of the priestess.

The little figure on the left, holding the calabash with her full hand closed, signifies the endless waiting in the suffering of her sick husband who she is ready to follow faithfully, which can be seen by the expression on her face.

Seat height: 50 cm. Kneeling: 40 cm.

Closed gourd: 25 cm. The pendant: 11 cm. Return

 

 

Luba 100-110-120

H: 51 cm

Region: SOUTH-WEST SONGWE

Shankadi: Wife of a member of the Luba elite. Once a year in the dry season, she is called upon to choose a baby whom she carries with arm to body; a calabash in the right hand. This event takes place during a meeting of several ethnic villages, and thus sets an example by encouraging the harvesting of food for those who have become dependent on the community. (old people, maimed by wounds caused by an animal, physical weakness, former helpless warrior hunters, mentally ill, etc.).

In the RYAGOMBE or (LYAGOMBE) of Rwanda, we find among the many rites, this honourable intention, full of dignity, compassion and respect.

 

 

Luba 130-140-150

Region: SOUTH-WEST SONGWE

H: 20 cm (length 32 cm) Shankadi

Tribute to twin girls and boys bizygotes. The calabash at the mother’s foot represents fertility and the cover clearly shows the cervix open, accessible for fertilization by male semen.

 

 

Luba 170-180-190

H: 37 cm

Couple with hollow bodies filled with sacred substances; symbol of wealth for the close-knit family. The African equivalent of the reliquary of the white fathers that each mission possessed to encourage conversion (relic of a Saint). The object here is transmitted on the matrilineal side.

 

Luba 200-210

Neckrest (30 cm), chili mortar (30 cm) and fertility horn (36 cm) in the form of a small olifant (the horn of plenty). You don’t blow into the opening in the lower abdomen. You suck in all these forces to swallow the energy that is in the air. It is engulfed by the spiral of fertility, of abundance, which enters the head through the fontanelles.

 

Luba 220-230-240

H: 53 cm

Impressive mortar showing all the matriarchal importance in the LUBA society.

The mother who feeds two children, the third awaiting her turn on her back, emphasizes fundamental responsibility in keeping with the survival of all. Here, an aunt, common ancestor has always struggled between the example to follow MAWEJA (the creator) and the harmful influences of N’KONGOLO KAA MUKANDA, that cursed the son NYOKA.

 

Luba 250-255-256

Shankadi. Bellows forge. Some of these tools had banana leaf bellows. Here, these are antelope skins. The sleeves are pierced with holes to put bamboo sleeves, to work standing.

 

 

Luba 259-260

H: 43 cm

The ram woman represents here the solar force (masculine side) feeling of very fusional protection with her child. She holds him firmly on his back, and his arms are encroached to his mother’s sides.

 

 

Luba 270-280

H: 42 cm

High power priestess. All the rituals of initiation degrees in life, of adolescent, married woman, mother, and elderly menopausal, are very detailed on the whole body and face. The snake coming out of the vagina is river water symbolizing great fertility. The subject represents the entire ethnicity. On the back, it is the lunar side which is preferred and shows the importance of procreation. It is interesting that attention is drawn to the classic design that is found in many ethnic groups and made on the soles of the feet. Exactly the same is found on the walls of the ancient city of Zimbabwe. For dreamers, not far from the truth, a long walk to settle in a living space because of movements forgotten in time.

 

 

Luba 290

H: 25 cm

Statue of hut, and votive offer object, recovered in waters with fertilizing power, to be able to benefit from protection of the other world where the disappeared charged them with positive energies for the living.

 

 

Luba 300-310

H: 44 cm

Binocular caryatid stool to protect the chief who is the exclusive owner and thus shows the power of his manhood. In certain clans of numerous ethnic groups, one of the twins was killed who inspired a fear of complicity in the future, once they reached adulthood. In other places they were deified.

 

 

Luba 320-330-340

H: 50 cm

The woman represents the cosmic tree, the fingers are the branches supporting the vault of the sky which is the seat on which the owner sits. The back, arched to the extreme and very unusual, shows the importance of the weight of the mother’s responsibilities in Luba society. The completely abstract legs are the roots of the tree merging with the base which is the ground.

 

Luba 350-360

H: 41 cm

Stool. Chief’s wife influenced by a spirit that has her brain to protect her from important and painful events that she has had to live and endure, such as loss of an older child or loved one. Rare representation, reproduced on a seat. The husband constantly pours a nourishing liquid into the cups available to the protective spirit called for help.

 

 

Luba 370

H: 40 cm

KANANGA-KASAÏ (MULUBA)

The classic of the classics

 

 

Luba 380-390

H: 47 cm

Region: KASONGO.

Hemba-Bangu-Bangu.

Very close-knit couple in existence, already showing an advanced age. The scarifications respecting tradition at each period of life, are respected.

 

 

 

 

Luba 400

H: 39 cm

Young chef’s classic stool responsible for fermented drinks.

 

 

 

 

Luba 410-420-430

H: 48 cm

BINJA-KUSU-WAGENIA (Congo River)

The reduced head and massive body, with the HOTTENTOT buttocks, in apron, shows the importance of the matriarchal power of field work. To cope with periods of food shortage, the fat reserve on the buttocks is a visible and reassuring factor of survival (STEATOPYGY).

 

 

Luba 440-450-460

H: 51 cm Region: KABALO

This very fertile HEMBA patriarch ensuring his descendance is particularly visible given the importance of sex. The essential concern, concerning this statue, was to hide it from the missionaries who would have broken the manly member and thus put the whole village in appalling turmoil.

 

 

 

Luba 462-463-464

KONGOLO: war drum. The face in the foot protects from negative energies coming from the ground in certain places where it could be deposited by distraction.

 

 

Luba 465

RAKU technique. Slowly cooked clay covered with a straw fire, in a hole sheltered from the wind.

 

 

 

Luba 466 MULONGO region.

Certain small masks and statuettes thrown into the water demanded the opening of passage in displacement and thus to escape the colonial law which obliged the one who wanted to leave his territory to carry on him an official authorization. The statue in question is analogous to the description above but is an ex-voto that stayed in LUALABA and concerns protection against possible amoebic diseases that can be contracted while traveling.

 

Luba 470

H left: 16 cm H right: 14 cm

Pendant statuettes that can also be placed in the beads of the loincloth.

 

 

 

 

Luba 480

H: 10 cm

MANONO: M’Boko protection pendant worn by the soothsayer and thus intimately linked to his priestess

 

 

Luba 487

Calabashes of fertility. The forces inside are protecting the owner.

 

 

 

Luba 488

Character identical to the 487 but without its calabash.

 

Luba 490

H: 10 cm (length = 22 cm)

Pipe of priestess for a manly laziness

 

 

 

 

Luba 492-493

KASONGO: M’BOKO LUBA-WAGENIA-KUMU.

 

Luba 510

H left: 42 cm H right: 17 cm

Region: MANONO. Congo River (ZAIRE – KONGO)

Hemba. Carved pictorial proverbs are silent dialogues with the offending spouse.

On the left, I’ve been waiting for you all day and you’re coming when the leopard wakes up. If tomorrow you start again you will find me like that again doing nothing.

On the right, look at my feet I went 20 km to get water. They are twice as big as yours, which have shrunk like a leopard that has drawn its claws. In the calabash, there is nothing to eat, so my hands will remain stuck on my buttocks.

 

 

Luba 520

Staff of Authority. Ex-voto, head with plucked collar.

 

 

 

Luba 530-540

H: 19 cm

Neck support (pillow) representing the learning of seduction by the aunt to her niece.

 

 

 

 

Luba 590

H: 37 cm

Party drum owned by the user.

 

 

 

 

Luba 610

H: 19 cm

Protection pendant from a TAM-TAM owner

 

 

 

 

Luba 620

H: 33 cm

Hemba. Important character of protection, for a preparation to face the buffalo in the wooded savannah. 4 days / 4 nights of expiatory dances.

 

 

 

 

Luba 389-390-391-630-640

H: 52 cm

Region: KASONGO

Important HEMBA community statue – BANGU-BANGU

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luba 650-660

H: 40 cm Hemba-KUNDA

Bell mask. The wearer of this face has a voice distorted by the resonance, the head being completely embedded there. The Western expression “the helm” is a major error, however, often found in very high quality works. The Helm is an armour hat protecting the head, in the Middle Ages.

 

 

 

Luba 670

Hemba-Kalanga-KUNDA

Neck support (pillow). Janus feminine and masculine. Lunar-Solar. Representing a very united couple.

 

 

Luba 680

H: 72 cm

The spirit of the disappeared returned to the statue, an important protective medium, after a series of ceremonies among soothsayers, spanning over several weeks.

 

 

Luba 690

H left: 53 cm H right: 47 cm

Hemba. The master.

The captive docile. Former defeated warrior, left alive, for certain qualities. First a slave responsible for the surveillance of the granaries, he will become a hunter, a messenger to prove his loyalty and then be integrated while always keeping a lower status. He will be respected like any other member of the ethnic group.

 

 

 

 

Luba 700

H middle: 48 cm Other h = 25-30cm

MANONO. The patriarch and cousins of mediation with the spirits. The invisible of sacred wood. To the layman, certain revelations will provoke the death penalty. Bush HEMBA – LUBA

 

 

 

Luba-Mbha-1000-1001

H : 35 cm

 

Luba 710-720-730 H: +/- 25-30cm

Hemba. The smallest face can be worn on the neck or in the passport on the shoulder. The oldest, those of the origins, are the intermediaries between men and all the forces of the forest. They provide answers requested to the missing by the living. Very long night and day ceremonies spanning weeks or even months.

 

Luba 740

H: 47 cm

Region: LUAMA river in BOYO territory. Legacy of some 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The ISHANGO bone discovered in 1950 by Jean de Heinzelin. A calculation table equivalent to notched sticks. A great ancestor of our classical mathematics. Lunar phases, rainy and dry seasons linked to transhumance, etc.

 

 

Luba 750

H: 18 cm

Diam: 27 cm

The patrimony. The wealth of the family. Raffia, cowries, leather trim and reptile skins.

 

 

 

 

Luba-MBHA-1000-1001

 H: 35 cm

King of KONGO having put on all the prestigious African-style instruments of the Portuguese bishops.

 

 

 

Kongo-273

Height: 67 cm (with feathers) Nail statue – N’KONDI KON

 

 

Kongo-274-275-276

H: 45 cm

The mask of the hunter who went mad with a head injury. Ivory bicolored eyes. Possessed by a spirit. They dance to his homage for long months and he is hidden from colonial authority. Kibanguism protected these kinds of sacred ceremonies to show the missing that they were always present in the eyes of the living.

 

 

 

Kongo-355 Height: 22cm

Hunter’s powder box for a hunter still using a flintlock rifle.

 

 

Kongo-356-358-359

Height: 25cm

The invincible holder of ex-votos hung on the whole body, except arms, legs, head. Bells on the neck and on the right (solar) forearm chase bad waves by disrupting their attempts to progress. He taunts all the forces of evil, even death. He sticks out his tongue and drags the moon around the ankle of his left leg. A shiny blood-coloured stone resembling a heart is put in place of the real organ. All the wrought copper prevents evil entities from weakening it in the face of permanent attacks. The bells are used to distract from evil intentions.

 

 

 

Kongo-365-366 Left: 26 cm

Right: 29 cm

Individual statuette. If the BAKONGO and the BAYOMBE are neighbours, they have always kept their differences particularly visible here, as the hairstyle, the scarifications, even if their way of life was very similar. The representations of maternities present have not undergone any influence usually required by white fathers for fear of destruction, the opposite of community maternity 272 whose joined hands imitate those of the baby Jesus.

 

 

Kongo-466 Height: 18 cm

KONGO stool with Portuguese AZULEJOS design.

 

 

Kongo-467 H: +/- 70 cm

Village chief ivory oliphant. This instrument was still made with the first tusk that touched the ground when the animal died. This kind of object did not endanger the species. Today seriously threatened,

we forget that it is the civilized with their billiard balls and other piano keys who are the real culprits of this extinction of these pachyderms.

China is responsible for the largest ivory trafficking in humanity, with 35 to 40,000 elephants slaughtered per year in this new millennium.

 

 

Kongo-494 H: +/- 35 cm

Deceased. Heavy and very hard wood. Rejecting the appetite of lovers of cellulose like termites. Ivory eyes. Classic attitude among the BAKONGOs, like these soapstone representations of different sizes that all the families had in the huts, on the tombs or in votive offerings to the river.

 

Kongo-526 Height: 21cm

Personal protective statue of a BAMGALA or HAOUSSA soldier of the police force at the beginning of the Belgian colonization. In the belly there is a bullet behind the block of rock crystal (cover) and other protective materials. The lance can be removed for ease of transport in the backpack.

 

Kuba-176-468

Wood height 30 cm, complete 1 m

The BONGO justice bell mask (BWOOM family)

The Lukengo king of the Kuba (Nyimi) was not allowed to see because he was above the laws of time. Highly sacred, in the service of immanent justice.

Any accused who had to appear before him surrounded by notables, if found guilty, he was subjected to ordeal: the poison test and various fire tests which were always very disabling. It sometimes happened that the king was called to appear before this formidable judge, and it was by shaking his head to shake the bell that the sanction fell. A judgment for a gross negligence against his people could result in death. During a conviction, a parrot feather was given to him by the KOLMs (dignitaries) who forced him to resign from his duties. Even going so far as to force him to poison himself or to plunge his hand into the punitive basket (See image 480).

 

 

Kuba-177 Height: 30 cm

Mortuary face of the queen mother made of a particular vegetable substance (the plant that wraps everything), similar to a braiding. Made several weeks after her disappearance and can be used for months for a series of honorary rituals. All the wives of Nyimi accompanied by mourners and priestesses will address him respectful tributes so as not to attract his wrath on the whole kingdom. In animist culture, metempsychosis is inseparable from this belief, in which almost all living or inert material supports are inhabited

Kuba-178

Height: 40 cm (wood)

Ostentatious bell mask from the small kingdom KUBA – BIEENG – KETE – PENDE du SUD.

 

Kuba-179

Notable KUBA on the left: the lackeet (headdress) is ritually removed with an adze which destroys it, here it sits on aquatic herbs (water lilies); return to childhood, to innocence due to old age and excess. The legs in crossed frog legs, the puffy face, stigmata of excesses and the blows operated on the left breast announce his symbolic death.

Notable KUBA on the right, is awaiting the inauguration with all the distinctive signs pertaining to his future office of which the signs of allegiance to the king still in place are carved there.

 

 

 

Kuba-180

The IKUL: knives of the elite. Here the model made of aluminum foil, a true work of art showing absolute mastery in working with metal, waste from an airplane cabin. Some of these knives were made of wood to be worn at sunset because a royal decision by LUKENGO had prohibited the carrying of metal weapons in the dark.

 

Kuba-377-378

Various utility basketwork

 

Kuba-382 Height: 53 cm

ISHEEN IMAALU. Sometimes worn as a crest on the head. Here the lackeys (the equivalent of the Hebrew kippah) had the feathers removed for transport because the diameter can reach 1 meter.

 

Kuba-404 Height: 26cm

Babende ISHYEEN IMAALU

with feathers: Kuba warrior IYOOL

Used to prepare for a punitive expedition. Consecration to war for war.

 

 

 

KUBA-405

Height: 25cm

Babende ISHYEEN IMAALU (SHOOWA)

featherless: warrior of lower rank

In a hierarchical, subordinate manner, but which does not in any way damage the reputation of the man in combat.

 

 

Kuba-470-471-472

470: belts, pearl headgear, carpet,

471: prestige stick, lion tail with pearl handle.

472: feline mane hair necklace.

 

Kuba-473 Height: 30 cm

Jar of palm oil butter.

 

 

Kuba-479 Height: 25cm

Representation of a colonial administrator. Brutal, arrogant, alcoholic, unshaven, physically neglected. He does not realize that he is mocked by the entire population, during a celebration organized in his “honour” to which he was invited. The subterfuge is the use of a mask which is usually very important to put an end to all suspicion. Allows all grimacing attitudes a few meters from the hated one who has been intoxicated by palm wine or LUTUKU.

 

 

 

Kuba-525 Height: 25cm

Personal maternity with the protection of a very close-knit mother holding her daughter on her stomach, whom she wants to keep with her despite her puberty, which is finished and is ready to be married.

 

 

Mpasu-257-258 Height: 58 cm

Character commemorating the dance of the leopard. Seen from behind: a carnivore’s muzzle is placed in the hollow head and closed with a leather lace. The “snake” in the entire back, in wooden beads of three colors, fixes the energies of the sacrum to the neck.

 

 

 

MPASU259-260-261

Height: 60 cm

The highest grade, responsible for all associations of initiation of young people of age to be called to be integrated into various societies of warriors, very hierarchical. The double colour brings him back to the masters of ritualized anthropophagous ceremonies to get in touch and obtain the favours of the invisible worlds. The Sungu and the Kinka are found just below his authority.

 

MPASU262

Height: +/-20 cm

Braided raffia mask. Like all these fellows, they are confined to a single brotherhood of Mukanda. The hunter, the warrior, the crop guard, the border guard “Kongo – Congo – Zaire – DRC”, Angola. All of them formidable in ambush. Always feared by their neighbours and yet very peaceful in business

contacts. Still use silent barter to avoid any friction with their interlocutors. Small faces visible on the belt, on the shoulder and on the sword with 4 teeth taken up on the epaulettes in 1961 of the Katangese gendarmerie.

 

 

 

MPASU265

Height: 30 cm

Mask of the three forces used during ceremonies in phase with the different quarters of the moon.

 

 

MPASU266

Height: 30 cm

Mask of 4 regions (cardinal points). Crossroads. Providential meetings.

 

 

MPASU267-268-269

Height: Mask 31 cm – Costume 1.6m

Uniform worn during the full moon in the forest to come into contact with the spirits. Use remained secret in the parallel brotherhood of N’Kanda.

 

 

MPASU270

Height: 65 cm

The typical and very personal attack and defense swords of the Basalampasu.

 

MPASU297

Height: 30 cm

Face of the person in charge, of a number of young people assigned to him for the first stage of initiation in the sacred house.

 

 

 

MPASU321

Height: 30 cm

The thinker: the 5 fingers of the invisible supporting the chin encouraging meditation. The absence of usually sharp teeth shows the great wisdom of this patriarch. The 5 original gifts in the “hand” of the leopard.

 

 

 

Mpasu-364 Height: 22cm

The eyes in the ears. Representation of bats, to demonstrate the importance of the forces of the night and especially in relation to the lunar phases. The nyctalope is compared to one who has double sight. If two families in a village have an antagonistic feeling, the one that repeatedly parasites the other will be seen as a harmful insect. Monitored and denounced in all its actions by the whole community, the night forces through this genius will intervene to restore balance in the name of the general interest.

 

 

Mpasu-433 Height: +/- 20 cm

Worn by the guardian of traditions and shaken to call the spirits as a witness to what he will declare in society. Often this very special object calls and causes rain even in the dry season.

 

 

Mpasu-509 Height: +/- 20 cm

Worn during the soothsayer council. The three judges, the three colours: black-white-red.

 

Mpasu-510 Height: 20 cm

• – Braided raffia belt, the widest part of which is worn on the front. Facilitating the carrying of the sword to the

 

• – The sticks of authority in stems of grass for

 

Mpasu-511

1st height: 33 cm 3rd height: 33 cm

Two masks of influence Lwalwa and M’Bal used in the beginnings of initiation stages. The two with side antennas on the temples are pure M’Pasu.

 

 

Mpasu-512 Height: 35 cm

 

Mpasu-513 Height: 35 cm

 

Mpasu-514 Height: 35 cm

 

Mpasu-515-516 Height: +/- 20 cm

 

Mpasu-517 Height: 20 cm

 

Mpasu-518 Height: +/- 25 cm

 

Mpasu-521 Height: +/- 44 cm

 

Bena_lulua_327 Height: 49 cm

Death mask. Classic face used after the funeral. Held by the handle on the chin, it is sometimes removed and replaced in front of the dancer’s head, covered with raffia and painted with kaolin.

 

Bena_lulua_328 Height: 33 cm

Face with a high initiation power. Used exclusively in the forest and at night, during a full moon in the centre of 4 lights lit successively by the bearer of this spirit.

 

 

Bena_lulua_329-330 Height: 40 cm

Region: between KASAÏ and URUA

The soothsayer: all the scarifications represented on his body, are a true reading of the responsibilities which fall to him as guardian of the respect of the practices of the tradition among the future initiates. Note at the back, the head covered by a headdress similar to the Bakuba’s headdress and the double-headed snake on the back representing the duality between the forces of evil and good.

 

Bena_lulua_331 Height: 22cm

Personal object worn in the belt to be protected from famine and to be lucky in hunting.

 

Bena_lulua_363 Height: 24 cm

Personal hut statue placed near the bed to give advice during sleep.

 

Bena_lulua_372_373 Height: 70 cm

Mortar for use of medicinal substances, which are at the same time intended to amplify the energies of this character beneficial from all points of view for the whole of the multitude.

MULUBA influence of KASAÏ

 

 

Tshokwe-199-200 Height 46 cm

Tobacco jar, or for sacred and medicinal herbs, surmounted by a king playing the lembe (or likembe), to call for peace, relaxation, conciliation, the success of any debate. The hidden script on the representation of a granary is the enclosure of the house of notables’ meetings. Image of the multitude with its differences and related to the purifying water.

 

 

Chokwe-201

Mortar with peppers or other culinary herbs.

Left, height: 35 cm. Woman – nurse LEELE, affected in the leg by poliomyelitis.

Right, height: 36 cm. CIOKO. The hairstyle indicates a king’s wife with a very masculine, authoritarian face.

 

Chokwe-202-203 Height: 36 cm

Commemorative musical instrument. Idiophone, GIBINJI among the Bapende. The theme of twins is recurrent for all ethnic groups and is represented on many objects.

 

Chokwe-204

Height: 28cm See 323-324.

 

Chokwe-205 Height: 30 cm

Goddess of the 9 lunar phases.

The first obscure, “invisible”, then, the first crescent,

the hemisphere, the mandorla, the full disc

and the exact decay returning to darkness.

 

 

Chokwe-277-278 Height: 46 cm

Priestess to the child. “The snake sign”. The back of the head indicates the very high rank of the person within the society of traditional guardians.

 

 

Chokwe-279-280-281

Height: 37 cm

Anamorphosis in African statuary is a fundamental practice, closely linked to written language, always hidden from the layman, not only on the surface of the object by various signs, but also in its attitude.

Winner’s stool: after numerous confrontations in preparation for the annual competition between the strongest and selected men in each village; losing in a friendly match was the supreme humiliation.

Failure at the annual meeting was honourable and courageous in the face of the invincibles of the moment.

 

 

Chokwe-311 Left: 27 cm

Center: 23 cm

Right: 24 cm

 

 

Ceremonial mask for each very personalized case: see 323-324

 

Chokwe-312 Height: 30 cm

Large mask used at the very beginning of a war plan preparation after an order from BA ALUNDA. The BASHOKWE agreed to be well-paid casual mercenaries. Often about very old bitterness with the BAWENDE ethnic group (BAPENDE).

 

 

Chokwe-313 Height: 30 cm

Honey harvester, a work as risky as hunting or war. Between the teeth is the entrance to the hive. On the nose, the forager. The smoke blown by the wearer of this dreaded face, is coming out through the nostrils and the mouth, it slows down the aggressiveness of the bees. Small sight holes keep bees from attacking the eyes.

 

Chokwe-315

Left height: 38 cm. 1890

Right height: 37 cm. 1930

 

Tshokwe-316

Belt masks and parade knives

 

 

 

Chokwe-317-318 Height: 22cm

KAHONDA the spirit from elsewhere that only HAMBA rituals can discover and exorcise.

Head jerks, fontanelles covered with herbs to relieve pain. Its counterpart also exists among BAWENDE.

Height: 35 cm

KASAÏ war mask border of Angola and beyond.

The nostrils retracted and crushed showing anger, the mouth wide open and vindictive, the massive horns directed downwards, ready to charge. This zoomorphic character opens a ceremony at dawn to do battle with a neighbouring ethnic group. Pretexts: cattle theft, kidnapping of women, looting of cereals, confiscation of canoes, etc. Note the horns of Amun, Egyptian heritage. And in summary, the ivory point representing the bird (the bird picking insects on bovines) on the back of the bovid, which will warn him if lions are hiding in the MATITI (tall grass) and other dangers.

 

 

 

 

Chokwe-322-337-338

Height: 25cm

The face of the most beautiful, the seductive.

 

 

 

 

Chokwe-323 CIOKO

Left: 28 cm

Center: 35 cm – Mask of sacred wood Right: 22 cm

 

 

Chokwe-324

Same as 323.

 

 

Chokwe-360-409

Cup used during the first palm wine tasting, which sometimes filled a small canoe (individual). Ditto for the LUTUKU (bamboo alcohol) prepared in RAKU jars or in calabashes.

 

 

Chokwe-361 Height: 30 cm

Cultural toy object. Serving the mother in a fun way to prepare her daughter in adulthood for her first initiation.

 

Chokwe-367 Height: 25cm

One who knows the languages of all plantations. He has the ability to be able to enter the protective circle of each tree to dialogue with him. He is the brother of the forest.

 

 

Chokwe-369-370

Height: 42 cm

The guardian of the highest summit of the cosmic tree. Ritual never revealed.

 

 

Chokwe-375 Height: 20 cm

Small gift mask offered to the passing traveller, brings good luck to him throughout his journey.

 

Chokwe-381 Height: 72 cm

Front panel of the hut of a fortune-teller who practices anamnesis. See the moon phases engraved in the horns of the buffalo. Specialists of advice to couples who come to consult him in order to have a happy birth or predict the sex of the child.

 

Chokwe-400-401 Height: 51 cm

Two-skin solar and lunar drum. Depending on the thickness of the wood, in the two bells, the sound is different, used when it is turned over.

 

Chokwe-418 Height: 34 cm

The bearer of this spirit of the forest, strikes with his foot the roots of the first tree he meets before sinking under the foliage to go talk to the forces of the two worlds.

 

Chokwe-495-496 Height: 35 cm

Commemorative statue in memory of this great old chief close to the king. He has a particularly dilated scrotum, due to a very large consumption of palm wine. Sometimes also with early elephantiasis.

 

 

Chokwe-497 H: 31 cm

Chief’s wife with all these protective jewels, especially on the right forearm. Also, a sign of wealth. The hemisphere-shaped hairstyle is a PENDR-KANYOK heritage

 

Chokwe-498 H: 39 cm

Position of seduction awaiting an elected official with a dowry equivalent to her physical beauty, her future destiny as a fertile mother and protector of the home.

 

Chokwe-499-499a-500-501-502

H: 66 cm

Funeral urn of a great administrator. Face with zoomorphic sign, mourning his distress at having had to leave his family too quickly. Four heads are placed at the crossroads (cardinal points) to protect the content from harmful influences. Two native forged iron rings are used to lift the object, as it is forbidden to soil it with your hands. A plume is placed at the back of the head during a commemoration of the memory, to prove to the part of the body that has remained “active”, that it is still present in the living. On the other hand, no one will go to his grave where other dignitaries are buried in the part of the elite cemetery. Above all, do not wake up those who might try to indulge in any kind of revenge. Silence and oblivion, this is the best decision. A proof of great respect and fear.

 

 

PENDE-206

Height: 68 cm without feathers

Substituted spirit replaces the dancer’s costume in the sacred house. The N’GANDA. He is the child, the protégé, of the MIGANJI. Places must always be inhabited, this presence prevents negative energies from insidiously settling in the house of ritual objects. The character has undergone numerous sacred manipulations.

 

 

PENDE-207-208-299e-229F-299g-299H

In the Katundu region, the Tundu of royal blood originates in the sacred canoe. Westerners called kinglet, a monarch transformed by them into tribal or customary chief, but who nevertheless reigned over an area four to five times greater than the colonizing country (Belgium). This Tundu is re- embodied, straight out of the LOANGE river. The Katundu ceremony is very complex. It has a thousand arms like the thousand branches of the original tree which are lost in the vastness of the world above.

The very specific M’Buya dance of different groups always begins with the Katundu ceremony. First, the moral lessons, then follow the invocations to the forest geniuses to whom we pay respectful tribute.

These same spirits are asked to make many interventions concerning fertility, crops and livestock. In order not to irritate them, the assemblies sing and dance while going to spread food and drinks, between the villages and the bush. Thus calmed down, these entities will not come back to ask the living to account.

Then come the young freshly initiated before returning to a new course. Drums and tamtams even sound at night for several days or even weeks. The dances are punctuated by three steps forward, one big step back. The whole event is covered by songs which recount the exploits of hunters and warriors. The festivities will end with scenes telling of everyday life: mocking the chiefs, ridiculing

women who stand out too much, like the pretentious woman living off the white man and returning to the village to insult her fellow villagers, treated as savages, etc…, fearful, profiteering, lazy men.

Among the Tundu masks, we find the innocent, the hypocrite, the arrogant, the provocative, the naive, the crazy, the alcoholic, etc. Some of them are booed by the crowd.

We feel in the PENDE styles SOONDE, BENA MAÏ, LULUA, KETE, Etc.

Along the KWILU on both banks from north to south, many PENDE masks and statues have absorbed everything that interested them from their neighbours as in the far south KWANGO-KASAÏ at CIOKWE (Tshofwe), M’Pasu , WONGO, etc.

 

 

 

PENDE-208b

H = 30 cm

It is the solar pendant of the lunar 208. He is very aggressive, insulting, arrogant and cynical, he announces the worst. The crowd is silent and records his warnings. It attracts curiosity while arousing fear. He can sometimes play the role of the king’s fool.

 

 

 

PENDE-208g

H: 60 cm

Very close to the KUBA kingdom and appreciated at the NIYMI court. This venerable is for the memory of notable young people an example of dignity, integrity, respect, obedience. All these models with wooden beards carved with different meaning are called MUTUMBI and are KIWOYO MUYOMBO.

 

 

PENDE-208L

GAWEG. She plays the scene of a shredder and seller of TUGULA; blood-red root used in all ethnicities for many ceremonies and mixed with palm oil. On objects and on bodies.

 

 

 

PENDE-208N

Bush TUNDU. Hanging from a tree near the land of the dead until it is destroyed.

 

 

 

PENDE-208s

Originally used by KISENZELE emigrants in SANGU-MVUDI chiefdom. MUTUMBI mask with short beard. Grief, repentance, regret at having been able or not able to succeed in an action.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-209

Height: 40 cm

Soothsayer woman, with tubular eyes and a round mouth. Represents a person who is asked a favour and who is listening. She is close to the brotherhood of KATUNDU. In her two closed hands, she holds invisible forces which protect her against any embezzlement. Still menopausal, she can then approach men, but only in certain circumstances.

 

PENDE-207

Tundu 33 cm without beard.

Appears randomly among the different phases of M’BUYA. This formidable face of the TUBIGO, whose goatee is a hyena tail, inspires fear, terrorizes the women who run to hide at home with the children, and in any case always remain very far from this disturbing presence. The hyena is a scavenging animal most feared by Africans, but which certain ethnic groups deify and even feed in whole packs.

The hyena announces with its laughs of future misfortunes. He can also warn of the danger of a family of lions approaching too close to the village.

 

 

PENDE-208

H: 26 cm

It is the very first mask that spectators see rushing, running in the centre of the common square. The moral sessions can begin. KATUNDU is often mixed with M’Buya. At certain periods, there is even voluntary confusion.

 

 

PENDE-208c

H: 33 cm

 

PENDE-208d

H: 25 cm

The quiet uncle, the blacksmith, (M’BEMBO) the one who exceptionally shows himself to the public outside his home outside the village. The four scarifications on the forehead show the degree of importance of his rank in the soothsayer society, even within the brotherhood. He also sculpts and is very demanding with apprentice sculptors.

 

 

PENDE-208th

H: 34 cm

The one of the past. He returns for inter-village festivities. He selects, he is his own master. We sometimes rent our person by paying for it with exclusively metallic objects. He face is marked by smallpox. The holes on his nose mean one should be wary of him, he is a dreaded TUNDU.

 

 

PENDE-208f

H: 30 cm

N’ZAMBA. Most important of all among the chefs. MUGONGE, WANGA-KELA. His age is like the image of a primate beard on his chin. Unusual and extremely rare on the head of the wooden IKHOKO, on the left, on the right, on the back, it protects the head, around the fontanelles. The circle of the invisible on the forehead commands the utmost respect for his degree of authority.

 

PENDE-208h-208i-208g-392 208h – H: 67 cm MUTUMBI

208i – H: 35 cm MUTUMBI

208g – H: 35 cm MUTUMBI

392 – H: 60 cm MUTUMBI

 

 

PENDE-208j

A face with a red or white line on the forehead represents a very important soothsayer leader, bearer of traditional African justice. The braided MIGANJI. N’GANGA N’GOMBO.

 

PENDE-208k

H: 25 cm M’BAMBI

BAMBI from the MAZEMBA-KEZA clan

 

PENDE-208L

H: 28 cm

 

 

PENDE-208m

H: 23 cm

M’BAKU-BAKU. The dreaded one, the one who confronts the battler and who does not know fear.

 

 

 

PENDE-208N

H: 24 cm

 

 

 

 

PENDE-208o

H: 20 cm

GANDUMBU: the one who is unlucky, does not heal, is the scapegoat by her own fault.

 

 

 

PENDE-208P

H: 23 cm

 

 

 

 

PENDE-208q

H: 27 cm

 

 

 

 

PENDE-208s

H: 30 cm

 

 

 

 

PENDE-208T-208u

H: 38 cm

The wise, the old, the respected. Face of commemoration coming out every year for the disappeared who could come back to demand accountability from the living. Died of disease having reached the lymphatic circuit, the ganglion at the tip of the enlarged chin is clearly visible.

 

 

PENDE-208v

H: 27 cm

Appeasement in death. Complete rest. Placed on the face of the deceased before burial for the next world, whose body is surrounded by the family of the mourners and the whole village.

 

 

PENDE-209

H: 42 cm

 

 

PENDE-209a

H: 55 cm

The dream of owning the most beautiful woman of the PENDE reign. Except the blacksmith and the sculptor, the hunter, the warriors, the cultivator, all seek to seduce her, to be the chosen one to share her hut and ready to pay a very strong dowry.

 

PENDE-209b

H : 45 cm

Light woman, playing the role of the pretentious, idle woman who by her beauty deceives men about her real feelings.

 

PENDE-209c

H: 20 cm

BAMBI from the MAZEMBA-KEZA clan

 

PENDE-209d-209e-209E 209d – H: 43 cm

209th – H: 35 cm 209f – H: 35 cm

Giphogo. The faces representing an animal are part of the secret bestiary of all ethnic groups. A zoomorphic link with nature requires formidable practices.

 

 

PENDE-209i

H: 26 cm

 

 

 

PENDE-210-211-212 210-211 H: 30 cm

212 H: 12 cm

Height: 30 cm

Rubber picker pipe used in public during a tundu dance, far from the presence of bwana ‘Ya the state’ (Y’a l’état), in colonial times. Danced exclusively at night. The object, hands folded at right angles down, means to the mercenary on duty with a Western company: “I have been very far in the forest, I have not found the white sap from the tree, do not punish me by cutting my fingers or hands, I could no longer serve you as you want. ”

Trees and rubber lianas: MACROLOBIUM DE WEUREI: 5 meter in diameter, clitandra, klainei, gentilii, landolphia, arnoldiana, owariensis, droogmansiana etc.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-210-211

H: 30 cm

 

 

 

PENDE-212

H: 12 cm

 

 

 

 

PENDE-216a-216b-216c

H: 60 cm

Used to act against all ailments. Character M’BANGU inspiring both fear and compassion. He can impress and terrorize. We address ourselves to this priestess who physically carries within her the worst torments of existence, and we ask her for protection. Its help goes in the direction of requests against deadly parasitic diseases, venereal problems, cerebral attacks deforming the face but also the body. Cleft lips, elephantiasis, but also the broad side of madness and those numerous variants which will be imperatively directed towards the exorcists.

 

 

 

 

 

PENDE-224

H: 28 cm

Personal statue identical to that of PENDE-216a-216b-216c

 

 

 

 

PENDE-225-226-227

Height: 47 cm

Liana tapper. Souvenir from the time of the rubber slaves. Brandished very often by the TUNDU in a specific commemorative dance (1890 harvest 123.666 Kg – 1900 harvest 5.316.534 Kg!).

 

PENDE-271

H: +/- 60 cm

Typical PENDE war swords and knives. Objects rigorously prohibited in the tribes by the colonial administration after the great revolt of 1930, again because of unbearable pressures concerning in particular the rubber harvesting.

 

PENDE-299a-299b-299c-229d

Closed 20 cm – open: +/- 1.5 m – height with head 38 cm

Aguet PENDE: important tool for monitoring and reporting a crime. Used only during the KATUNDU ceremony. While dancing and running along the spectators he stretches towards an alleged culprit or even suspect known to all: dark magic wizard, assassin, liar, thief, rapist, etc. It is thus in the eyes of all shown by the “finger” in front of the whole village.

Facing the custodian judges of the tradition, the accused will have to prove his innocence by ordeal, through the test of poison or red-hot iron which he must seize. The sweetest punishment is exile. He will be condemned to wander or be tied up in the bush at the mercy of predators. The drum will warn all the villages of the region of his banishment as far as the limits of the ethnic territory.

KATUNDU is always the opening of all other sacred festivities.

Essentially moralist, the wearer of this outfit shows women how to be dignified and clean. With leaves in an antelope horn which serves as a cane, he moves with a limp. He pretends to wipe himself after defecating or in a cloud of dust he washes his private parts. In the presence of a Bwana Ya state, he changsd his behaviour in clownish gestures as if it were a banal theatrical fresco and speaks only of M’Bouya in a very playful way.

 

 

PENDE-299j, 299k-299L

H: 85 cm

Carried on the shoulders of a second initiate some 3 meters high, it appears at dusk when the last rays of the sun blush the background of the sky. Women and children cannot see it or else face serious consequences, including abortion and even death. Used only during ceremonies involving men only, under the authority of the guardians of tradition.

 

 

PENDE-299m

Supervisor tied in the back of the TUNDU. He warns of any attempts to attack from behind. Its small size between the shoulder blades makes it practically invisible because it is often hidden by the size of the clothes. Old jute bag, mixed with raffia, it is comfortable to discern evil spirits and warn his master.PENDE-303-304-310

The M’BANGU faces GIBOLA-BOLA. Evilness, drunkenness, delirium attacks until falling into fire in a coma. Simulated epileptic seizures, etc…

 

 

 

 

PENDE-314

PENDE oriental mask, the mixed tradesman MATALA. The deceitful dance, the speechless, at home with the tongue smelling of spoiled fish, just good for the living beings in the mud at the bottom of the river. He turns around to see if he is being watched. With both hands, he carries two bundles of

“goods” which are actually filled with straw. He walks around the assembly while being called a crook.

 

PENDE-326

H = 30 cm

Medium mortar. KINU-KWY. The large KINU mortar, the small KWY mortar. The first is carved  without a person, like all the big models for millet or cassava. Only the little ones to snuff tobacco have always been sought after because supported by characters sculpted in positions as diverse as common life shows endless examples. The medium mortar is used for peppers, medicinal herbs, onions, pili-pili, etc. Sometimes even for large leaves of normal tobacco. Hemps and their variants are reduced to dust, to be prized. It is therefore very small and transportable, almost always with a lid.

Here this hybrid model PENDE-TSHOKWE-LUNDA has all these influences in it, and comes from the region of KANDALE, having certainly served as a barter object by an itinerant trader.

 

 

 

PENDE-353-354

BANGUI snuff mortar and other hallucinatory aromatic herbs

 

 

PENDE-368

Height: 70 cm

Bust of commemoration worn by a man in tribute to what his aunt did for him during his lifetime. Mother postmenopausal priestess of a brotherhood of women, performing scarifications following the progression of life events: engagement, marriage, birth, death. Marks on the flesh sometimes carried over to the person who succeeds him: on the arms, shoulders, kidneys or the front of the thighs.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-449

H = 18 cm

Strong KETE influence. Box pendant, watching over the children.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-450

Height: 13 cm

Terracotta pipe with a long nose, designed to show the benefit of the good smell of relaxing grass.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-451

Height: 15 cm

Whistle for hunting birds, the KONDE is made of wood. Exception confirming the rule, it also exists in ivory.

 

 

PENDE-456-457-458-461

Mask used in the bush by the guides during MUKANDA. Practice of circumcision of the traces painted or incised on the cheeks are tears (MOSOJI).

 

 

PENDE-522-523

Solar tundu (masculine). In the dance during his performance he is always accompanied by his lunar pendant (female). It shows the different phases of a couple’s life in existence very often, with derision.

 

 

 

 

PENDE-414

Soothsayer leader. Clan NIOKA-KITAMBA, master of the blacksmith’s bellows and of the secret scupper’s workshop, himself capable of practicing the activities on wood and iron, practically always lives outside the village.

 

 

PENDE-393-394-395

Skin drum. Very strong influence Tshokwe SUKU. Pende drums in general do not have any sculpture on their sides. Exceptionally a head appears. Here the subjects are pure PENDE.

 

 

 

PENDE-410-411

Cup of palm wine. In order to repel flies, a baobab pod harmoniously closes the opening.

 

 

PENDE-452

The character crouching in defecating position is a protective object placed in the box. Also an ex- voto that we put in the river to ward off stomach aches due to amoebic diseases which can be fatal in the short or long term. This protective medium is most often found in the MULUBA of KASAÏ, although it is widespread everywhere in the ethnic groups.

 

 

PENDE-453

Fertility horn with raffia collar. Maka wa Kiafrika stool and tool for contacting the invisible. Depending on its handling and its destination during an expiation ceremony. It is used under certain very specific conditions because it can call rain at an unwanted time.