Tribal Art

Mangbetu African art, a prestigious art, was intended for the elite of society, such as this articulated chair whose studs are carved with anthropomorphic figures and faces. The seat, attached to the wood by a tapestry nail but from which it stands out on the upper left corner, is animal skin and has been restored. The brown patina is abraded locally, updating a light wood.
In the forest in northeastern Zaire, the Mangbetu kingdom has expressed itself through architectural works that impressed European visitors in the 19th century. Their furniture, weapons, adornments and statuary were imbued with a rare aesthetic quality. The Mangbetu story was based on the refinement of his court but also on cannibalistic customs. King Mangbetu Munza was so dubbed The cannibal king. The ethnologist G.A. Schweinfurth in 1870 described its refinement, while at the same time testifying to the ritual killings and human sacrifices practiced by the people of elongated heads, to indicate this characteristic deformation of the cranial box obtained from compression, from an early age.