Tribal Art

The Zande mainly carved two types of statues, the Kudu, between 30 and 50 cm high represent ancestors, and the Yanda statues of 10 to 20 cm, animal or human form, having an apotropaic role, exhibited during divinatory rites during the rituals of the Mani society. This female figure, with arched, muscular arms, offers a tubular, reduced torso and stocky, spread-out lower limbs. The face is characteristic of statues of ancestors not belonging to the categories mentioned above, and appearing in pairs. Brown patina, localized granular aggregates. Desiccation cracks. Formerly known as "Niam-Niam" because they were considered to be anthropophagous, the tribes grouped under the name of Zande, Azandé, settled from Chad on the border of the DRC (Zaire), Sudan and the Central African ...

Established on large feet, this figure with bent limbs seems to state a sentence of his gaping quadrangular mouth. The eyes and nose form slight bulges in the flat face that extends from a classically pointed beard.
The room is covered with a crusty patina pad. Brown patina nuanced with ochre. It seems that these statues were intended to accompany the dying on their way to the ancestors.

The Kaka ethnic group, named after them by German settlers, is located in a border area between Nigeria and Cameroon. Their statuary shows some influence from other ethnic groups such as the Mumuye, whose statues also have short, flexed legs topped with a slender body. Their very thick and crusty patina, their wide feet and the wide open mouth are however typical features to distinguish ...

This refined late sculpture, based on a work that was made on the queen's death, depicts a queen mother of Benin named the Iyoba, whose neck is surrounded by multiple necklaces of coral pearls. Her high curved hairstyle was also made up of a beaded silla falling on either side of the face.
Patine dark, moist, golden reflections. After the birth of the future king, the queen was power and could no longer engender. But at the end of the 15th century the Oba Esigie refused to comply with this practice and wanted to attribute the city of Uselu to his mother. She also received a palace and many privileges. In recognition she raised an army to fight the Northern Igala. The Oba had a head cast in his effigy, among many works cast with lost wax, to place them on his altar after his death. ...

Male figure depicted seated, embodying an edjo. The statue has great similarities to the igbo sculpture, but stands out for its deep vertical facial scarifications. Yellow patina, matte and grainy, dark highlights. Damaged base.
Urhobos, living near the northwest of the Niger Delta River, are the main ethnic group in The Delta State among the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They speak Urhobo, a language of the Niger-Congo group. Together with the Isoko, whose art is close, they are collectively known as Sobo. Their large sculptures depicting the spirits of nature, edjo, or the founding ancestors of the clan, to whom sacrifices were offered, were grouped in shrines within the villages. They also produce figures similar to the ikenga of igbo called iphri , ivwri , of ...

African art from South West Cameroon.
Sculpted by members of the secret societies of the Bafo or Bafaw in southwestern Cameroon, this female figure whose oversized face evokes raw art. A wide mouth discovers rows of sharp teeth, a bleached look appears exorbiity, and, placed high, the pavilions taken off circular ears attract attention. She is wearing a simple textile beret. The long bust is carried by stocky legs under a sagging posterior. Engraved patterns are associated with traditional ethnic scarifications or tattoos. Locally abraded matte patina. Desication cracks.
Usage unknown but probably related to a fertility cult.

Among the peoples of the Republic of Congo, the initiation of young people ended with the revelation of the serpent god Ebongo represented in the form of a puppet head. The dances Kibe-kibe, Kebe kebe, which accompanied the ceremony reactivated the successive stages of creation. The Panther clan had a drum as an emblem. For its part, the snake's had carved heads, painted in bright colors, on sticks that the manipulator, hidden under a long robe, held his hands outstretched above his head. In homage to political figures, figures in their image were introduced. This is the representation of the 3rd President of the Republic of Congo Marien Ngouabi, born in the Kuyou region and assassinated in 1977 in Brazzaville. A former Saint-Cyrian, the figure is depicted wearing his beret with a medal ...

Ex Belgian tribal art collection.

This pair of bembe statues impresses by its dimensions. It is about a couple. The man holds a knife and a miniature head covered with kaolin while the woman holds a child on her arm, also covered with kaolin.
Both large figures have a relatively crusty reddish patina. Both wear black ornaments, such as bracelets. They wear a hemispherical headdress topped with a white growth.
The features of the faces are also demarcated from the patina using black pigment, as are the genitals. Bembe statuary has the particularity of highlighting the genitals, especially the male ones, sometimes in surrealist proportions.

The Bembe ethnic group is a Luba branch that left the Congo in the 18th century. Their society and artistic tendencies ...