Tribal Art

A female anthropomorphic figure with raised arms and arose-encrusted surface. The bust forms a double cut to collect beer, oil or palm wine for ritual ceremonies. The hands are digitized, but the feet are missing, the base being totally gnawed. Desication cracks. It is in the northern part of the interior of Nigeria, at the confluence of Niger and Benué, that the Koro, alongside the Waja, Mama, Hausa, and Dakakari have settled. Especially known for their masks adorned with red seeds of abrus embodying the ancestors, they also use this type of cups with ritual offerings at funerals or during sacrifices.

From the ex private collection of African Art Emile Robyn ( Brussels, Belgium ).

With its forms and proportions, this piece of art echoes the statues in Bronze from Giacometti. The tchitcheri represents an ancestor symbolized with a human body and an abstract face. It is originally stuck in the soil. The tchitcheri sakwa refer to the memory of the founder of a clan.

It's the grandfather of Emile, Abel Robyn, that started the collection in 1850, who was transmitted over three generations. At the death of Abel in 1895, his son, Jérôme Robyn did inherited the collection which he continued to fulfil until his death in 1968.

Emile Robyn inherited from his father and also continued this magnificent collection with all the piece of art he bought ...

A people of Central Africa who live in Kasai, a neighbour of the Kuba, the Ndengese form one of the clans of a common ancestor Mongo , some of them from Upper Nile. They produced statues of art first to the absent or truncated lower limbs, covered with graphic symbols, symbolizing the prestige of the leader. The flared hairstyle topped with a summit horn is characteristic of the hairstyles acquired by the Totshi belonging to the association ikoho and evokes particular proverbs. It symbolizes respect, intelligence and maturity. The face seems to be in meditation. The neck has a sling. Losangic scarifications in relief, with the aim of differentiating socially and aesthetically, are drawn on the bust. The clasped hands highlight the protruding umbilical. Dark brown patina abraded, residual ...

This figure of matrilineage ancestor is established legs spread on a pedestal, the length of the bust constrassing with the proportions of the lower limbs. The character has a long headdress worn in the neck. It also has a horn or yam associated with fertility, and is distinguished by the abundance and diversity of its facial and body scarifications. This type of sculpture was associated with the rites of protection and healing. Grey brown patina, residual white clay deposits.
Stylistic kinship is noteworthy with the Luba.
The Tabwa ("scarifier" and ", write") are an ethnic group in southeastern DRC. Simple farmers without centralized power, they united around tribal leaders after being influenced by the Luba. It was mainly during this period that their artistic current was ...

This sculpture collected in Guinea Conakry embodies a young warrior, armed with a knife and carrying the head of an enemy. This rare work with menacing gestures has characteristic features of the productions of the Dan of Côte d'Ivoire and those established in Nimba County in Liberia, adjacent to the Guinean border, which probably influenced the statuary of some clans. The braided hair gathered in three thick back-to-back shells, the jewels in the ears, the facial and body scarifications, the mouth with protruding lips revealing the dentition, form aesthetic constants. The Dan also once had a reputation as warriors and cannibals. The position in which the character was depicted is also unusual: sitting, legs apart, his nudity asked by a textile sex cover of vegetable fibers.
Smooth, ...

This female African figure of ancestor whose pose, hands on the chest, would evoke fertility, is also associated with royal secrets. This attitude indicates that the secrets of royalty, bizila , belong to women through their role as political and spiritual intermediaries. She is pictured wearing a prolonged tiara of a hull and a thick braid behind a forehead largely cleared by the traditional shaving. The so-called "en epi" , "tactile mnemoniccode" , cover the abdomen, the hollow of the kidneys and the lower abdomen, highlighting the volumes and the protruding umbilical. The speckled patina is powdery. The heavily altered base was fixed on a pedestal.
The Luba (Baluba in Chiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is the Katanga, specifically the region of the Lubu River, ...

Ex-french African art collection.
Anthropic figure guardian of the reliquary containing the bones of the deceased, on which it was recorded by the posterior stalk. This concave-faced statue has a stretched bust in which the umbilical stands out and atrophied limbs. Its long neck is surrounded by a metal torque, with apotropaic virtues. The umbilical lozenge and the geometric representation of sex are associated with parentage. The hollowed-out orbits give a psychic look to the figure. The black brown patina, smooth and oiled, blends locally.
A disturbing reputation for cannibals accompanied the Fang people, carefully studied by ethnologist Louis Perrois. Rituals and ceremonies related to the worship of Theby also included taking a hallucinogenic drug, alan , in order to ...

Ex-collection Belgian African art In the 13th century, the Kongo people, led by their king Ne Kongo, settled in a region at the crossroads of the current DRC, Angola and Gabon Two centuries later later, the Portuguese came into contact with the Kongo and converted their king to Christianity.Although monarchical, the Kongo political system had a democratic aspect because the king was actually placed at the head of the kingdom following an election held by A council of tribal governors, who was also known as ntotela, controlled the appointment of court and provincial officials, and the nganga, who were both healers, were in charge of religious activities and mediation of the God called Nzambi by intermediate of consecrated figures named nkisi A monochrome figure of an ancestor sitting on a ...

Ex-German African art collection.
Couple of Bamiléké warriors at a height of 1m90.
Museum Parts.
In African art, works in Bamiléké countries are distinguished by the regular use of pearls to decorate not only their masks but also their statues.
Each statue is marked by a strong polychromy.
It thus identifies the chiefdom to which these statues are attributed.
The use of cauris is reserved only for headdresses, while thousands of beads are embroidered to draw various patterns.
Every warrior carries his weapons slung over his shoulder.
Holding a loose loincloth for running and fighting.

The mambila statuary usually has squat and folded proportions on itself, the characters have bent arms and a triangular face carried forward.

The face can be concave, but it is smooth on this piece which still has contours. very angular and a conical shape Just under the pointed beard, proudly stands the virile member of the character conferring a connotation of power and fertility to the statue. Despite their small numbers, the 30,000 Mambila (or Mambilla, Mambere, Nor, Torbi, Lagubi, Tagbo, Tongbo, Bang, Ble, Juli, Bea), located in northwestern Cameroon, created a large number of masks and statues. There is still a large production of terracotta objects, a sign of the influence of the ancient Sao civilization further north, to Chad.