Tribal Art

A golden, lustrous surface accompanies this OviMbundu bust sculpture. The top of the head is encrusted with ritual materials. This fetish was associated with female initiation rituals, linked to fertility, or played a role during divinatory ceremonies. The rectangular arms extend from short fingered hands under a small chest. The head, offering an oval face with fine features, wears a hairstyle pulled back. Orange patina, dark traces of ritual anointing, desiccation cracks.
It is on the Benguela plateau in Angola that the Ovimbudu, Ovimbundu, have been established for several centuries, made up of farmers and breeders. Forming the largest ethnic group in Angola, they belong to Bantu speakers, such as Nyaneka, Handa, Nkhumbi, and other groups from the region of Huila, or ...

Carved in a dense wood, this seat figures a human head, offering sketchy features, and carrying a cup that forms the circular seat. Patina of use, significant erosion and cracks from desiccation. Living in the east of the Luba kingdom on the banks of the Mbujimayi, and having adopted part of the Luba culture, the Kanyok, Kanioc, or Bena Kanioka, created prestigious objects, such as water pipes, neck rests, sticks, and stools, and are especially famous for statuettes represented in different postures, made of dark wood and wearing bun hairstyles.  According to the Kanyok religion, the human being is composed of three parts: body, soul and spirit.  They believe in a supreme being called Tang a Ngoy.  The initiation of young people traditionally included, in addition to circumcision, the ...

Carved maternity embodying a thil, named thilbou khè bambi , supposed to protect mother and child.

Glossy brown-black patina.
The populations of the same cultural region, grouped under the name "lobi", form one fifth of the inhabitants of Burkina Faso. Although they are not very numerous in Ghana, they have also settled in the north of the Ivory Coast. In the late 18th century, the Lobi came from northern Ghana and settled among the indigenous Thuna and Puguli, the Dagara, Dian, Gan and Birifor. The Lobi believe in a creator God named Thangba Thu, to whom they turn through the worship of numerous intermediate spirits, the Thil, who are supposed to protect them, with the help of the diviner, against a host of plagues. The geniuses of the bush, red-haired beings ...

Ex Belgian African art collection. Rectangular neckrest, dense and massive, adopting cephalomorphic handles. Patina of use, veined wood, glossy.
The Tabwa ("to scarify" and "to write") constitute an ethnic group present in the southeast of the DRC, around Lake Tanganyika. Tribes in this region, such as the Tumbwe , worship ancestors mipasi through carvings held by chiefs or sorcerers. Simple cultivators with no centralized power, the Tabwa federated around tribal chiefs after coming under the influence of the Luba. It was mainly during this period that their artistic current was expressed mainly through statues but also masks. The Tabwa practiced ancestor worship and dedicated some of their statues to them. Animists, their beliefs are anchored around the ngulu , nature ...

Ngala statuary bears the influence of groups from the northwest of the Democratic Republic of Congo, such as the Ngombe and the Ngbandi. Probably originating from Sudan, the Ngala settled on the shores of Zaire. Wise traders, they also became famous for the art of blacksmithing and the production of weapons and metal coins. Their traditionalist nyanga doctors provided magical charms to promote hunting and fertility. Figurative sculptures related to mythical ancestors are used in cults similar to the yanda, with large statues forming clan emblems. Their musical instruments, also very diverse, are often anthropomorphic.
A balanced morphology composed of linear planes for this statuette represented in a rectilinear posture. The whole could skillfully indicate vigor and courage. His ...

Protective metal fetish, melted by the gan blacksmith using the lost wax technique. It is an individual statuette embodying the spirit of the "genies" and kept on oneself permanently. Old patina of use, grainy. Neighboring people of the Lobi in southwestern Burkina Faso, the Gan or Kaa (Kaaba pl.), form a "relic people" according to Madeleine Père, living within a wooded savanna. Their king "Gan Massa" is elected by the notables from different villages. Hypotheses diverge as to their origins. According to some, they could be of Akan origin, coming from Ghana, the Koulango and the Lhoron having preceded them in the region.

Ref : "Bronzes Gan" Maine Durieu, ed. Sepia

Cephalomorphic headdress with a handle, a figurative chief's insignia marked by Tschokwe influence. The headdress would be of the "guhota sanga" style worn around the 1950s . (p.7 "Pende" Z.S. Strother - ed. 5Continents) Black glossy patina.
The Western Pende live on the banks of the Kwilu, while the Eastern have settled on the banks of the Kasai downstream from Tshikapa. The influences of the neighboring ethnic groups, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba, and Salempasu have been imprinted on their extensive tribal art sculpture. Within this diversity the Mbuya masks, realistic ,produced every ten years, have a festive function, and embody different characters, including the chief, the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the possessed, etc.... The masks of initiation and those ...

Carved in dense wood, the sculpture features a woman whose head is turned towards the child she is carrying. A great softness emanates from this figurative scene treated in rounded volumes, and faces with peaceful physiognomies. Mahogany patina with a golden satin finish, kaolin residue.
Inspired by Christian religious subjects, this African sculpture of a saint draped in a stole, carrying a child on her side, reflects the impact of the Christianization of Kongo. When these objects were not made for a local parish, they were frequently reused in fetish cults for diviners and chiefs. Statuettes of a virgin in fact formed the tops of canes of authority mvwala.
The Vili, the Lâri, the Sûndi, the Woyo, the Bembé, the Bwende, the Yombé, and the Kôngo formed the Kôngo ...

Basketry helmet, topped with an animal figure rising from a cap. Textile underlines the contours of the headdress, and girdles the head of an animal. The latter is streaked with intersecting lines. Velvety matt patina. Piece collected in 1986 on the Bandiagara cliff.
The Dogon people are renowned in African tribal art for the myths and beliefs relating to their cosmogony.
His population is estimated at about 300,000 souls living southwest of the Niger loop in the Mopti region of Mali (Bandiagara, Koro, Banka), near Douentza and part of northern Burkina (northwest of Ouahigouya).More than 80 types of masks have been listed, the best known of which are the Kanaga , Sirigé , Satimbé , Walu . Most of them are used by the circumcised initiates of the Awa society, during funeral ...

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. ...

Baga religious practices and African art.
This shoulder mask, pierced with holes under the breasts to allow the wearer's vision, features an elaborate decoration consisting of rafters and incisions highlighted by inlays of tapestry nails.
Belle patina of use.
Mêlés in Nalu and Landuman, the Baga live along the coasts of Guinea-Bissau in areas of swamps flooded six months a year. They believe in a creative god called Nagu, Naku , which they do not represent, and which is accompanied by a male spirit whose name is Somtup . Apart from the famous Nimba mask, they have created a powerful mask, hybrid snake, gazelle, chameleon and crocodile, with the aim of communicating with the spirits of the forest. The face of the Baga Nimba mask is characterized by a buzzed nose evoking ...

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 ...

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 ...