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African Figures - African Sculpture Statues Africaine - Figurines Africaines Afrikanische Figuren - Afrikanische Statuen
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A Chokwe - Luvale or Luchazi Camponya
This + - 19 centimetres tall figure was collected in 1991, a short distance from Kabompo Zambia, on the road leading to Zambezi. The area is mainly populated with Luchazi people, but also Chokwe and Luvale. Here, facial scarification overlaps between these tribes, as did language and custom. All three groups refer to this object as camponya - their word for a fetish figure.
Chief from Kapanga - Belgium Congo - Pre 1920
The figures stylized coiffure is carved in a like fashion to related beaded crowns worn by chiefs (above).
Chokwe youth near Sandoa, Belgium Congo - Circa 1922 - Henri Bourguignon
Members of the public - perhaps royal - styled their hair in a similar manner.
The symmetric accomplishment of human shaped legs as supports for the stool, provides an ingenious contribution to the object. Legs are side by side, representing a chief's pose at council.
The artist carved this delightful figure with the skill of a master, and thus we are surprised to have encountered but a single example by his hand. It may well be it was traded into the area from a distant land.
another
Chokwe / Lunda - Seated Figure
This ancestral figural representation was discovered in Belgium, indicating
probable origin
as colonial Belgium Congo - DRC. As such, it was most probably carved
by a Chokwe or Lunda artist. European styled chairs already appeared in Chokwe and
related works by the mid 19th century. They were status symbols and
indicative of the owners power.
It is likely the object was carved as a representation of a tutelary ancestral spirit
- used for divination purposes called Hamba Kayongo. The male
figure appears to be taking medicine, which some diviners are known
to take before they make contact with the spirit world.
Sitting with crossed legs is frowned on in the
vast region where Chokwe, Luchazi, Lunda and Luvale peoples reside. The
message it sends is that you are hiding something. However, in
divination crossed legs is symbolic of a diviner who reveals secrets.
Shown together with the act of consuming medication, confirms this as a powerful, well executed divination object.
The rarely seen figure is carved from one piece of wood
and stands at + - 30 centimetres.
Bamana - Bozo - Marka - Markala - Somono
Yayoroba - 'Sprit of Women'
Click image to visit a dedicated web
page of this object.
Sangu or Makonde Ritual
Figures
19th Century - Malawi - Mozambique
This pair of rare
figures were not published in The Mlungu in Africa - art from the
colonial period, 1840- 1940, but were obtained from the same
collection.
They were excluded as
they are ritual objects made for
Africans.
Collected 1886 - Reichard
Reichard collected
these pipes amongst the Sangu in 1886. The Sangu lived North of Lake
Malawi. Author G. P. Murdock in "Africa: Its Peoples and Their
Culture History" places the Sangu (Sagala, Wasagara, Wassungara; with the Kaguru and Vidunda) in
the Rufiji Cluster (p.359). He says the Sangu were strongly affected by the
Ngoni invasions of the 19th century and sometimes contained
substantial Ngoni ingredients.
Nearby the Makonde
added scarification to their bodies much like that seen on the two
figures. According to the Makonde, shortly after the creation, the first man, wandering around
outside the bush, sculpted a female figure out of wood. The statue became a real woman who gave him many children.
After her death, she became the venerated ancestress of the Makonde,
which accounts
for the cult and the female figures that are
traditionally kept in huts.
Click
Thumbnails for Larger Images
The center image above
appears in The Art of Africa - MASKS AND FIGURES from Eastern and
Southern Africa, by Holy and is the property of of the
Horniman Museum. It is identified as East African Bemba. We feel it
is carved in a related style to the two figures shown on either side, but with Tabwa
influence. The Bemba live to the west of the Makonde.
We entered into a
discussion with tribal authorities over the origins of these two
figures. At one point it was agreed that they could be early collected Luguru,
Makonde, Matumbi or Zaramo, as glass eyes were used in their region.
From these choices, photographic records indicate that only the Makonde
practiced scarification in this manner.
The larger of our two figures
stands at 52 centimeters, which is + - 20.5 inches. The smaller of the two
figures base has been restored. It has four Dutch type beads around
the neck which may be 16th century. They are strung on a sort of old
leather lookalike fabric. Each figure has an old string of white
Venetian beads around the waist, which may very well be 19th century
in origin.
The bottom line
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Chokwe Figure
Tshokwe Figure - DRC Congo - Angola
Our Chokwe or Lwena female figure, style de l'expansion, is hold a medicinal horn. She is covered with fine adze marks and like many made for traditional reasons, does not stand on its carved wooden base when place on a hard flat surface. We obtained it from the old collection of Jean DEFAYS, whose son Pierre-yves confirmed it was purchased from a gallery before 1962.
La Sculpture Tshokwe - Marie-Louise Bastin - Pgs 151, 170 -169
Some of the first Chokwe figures collected by Europeans depict the hunter hero Tshibinda Ilunga, who more often then not held a gun as a staff, or with one. Marie-Louise Bastin suggests in her book La Sculpture Tshokwe that a hand held medicine horn possibly represents an earlier archetype, dating before the introduction of guns. She goes onto say that this does not mean such figures are earlier then those sporting guns, but that the artists who made these remained more faithful to an ancient tradition. When describing the figure above right, she states female figures bearing a horn are far rarer.
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Enjoy this images of a seldom seen Chokwe female figure.
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This figure wears no clothing and likely served to represent a tutelary spirit of an important old Chokwe diviner.
Chokwe fetishes were called Kaponya or Caponya. The strong expression on this statue is far seeing.
Buyu / Boyo Figure
Congo - DRC / Circa - 1900
This handsome and rare male figure likely originates from the Buyu, Boyo, or a closely related neighbour. It is finely carved from a hard brown wood and is 34cm tall, or 13.4 inches. Figures were made as effigies of royal ancestors mizimu and kept in miniature funeral huts. Few examples are known in collections.
100 Peoples of Zaire and their Sculpture - The Handbook - Pg. 25 - Marc L. Felix
Buyu style is characterized by a wide faced spherical head with closed eyes within circled sockets and aquiline, or narrow beaked noses. Rarest of all are those from the Southern group lacking tattoos, such as this example.
This ancestral sculpture walks with a cane and smokes a pipe. Seen together, this depicts high stature and social rank.
Click Thumbnails for Larger Images
According to Marc L. Felix; The Buyu, along with other tribes, came from the South as part of Luba migrations (pushed northward by the Lunda), crossed the Lukuga and settled in the Luama basin. They represent the northernmost element of the Luba group. Some then continued northward to Maniema, and later, led by Kabumba Mogabo and Kayumba Kabembe, (who allied himself with Kunda), descended when Kongolo established the first Luba empire.
An oval shape, perhaps representing a particular coiffure of the time, appears on the back of the head.
Makonde Figure / Mozambique
By Nampyopyo Kulombanungu
Nampyopyo Kulombanungu was an active artist during the 1940's. His success producing figures for resale gave him sufficient wealth and autonomy to invent a new form of mapiko masquerade involving masks representing non-Makondes. Today he is revered by Makonde's throughout northern Mozambique as a pioneer in masquerade.
Source: “Bortolot, Alexander Ives. Revolutions: A Century of Makonde Masquerade in Mozambique. New York: Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, Columbia University, 2007”
Related figures may date back to pre-colonial Makonde who lived in dispersed settlements. Each settlement was composed of a small number of households headed by men belonging to a matrilineal kinship unit called a likola. A likola was said to derive from a common female ancestor, revered as a life-giver and protector, who was represented by figurines. Carved from wood, the effigies were embellished with traditional body decoration. The face and torso had geometrical designs and the upper lip exhibited the lip-plug worn by Makonde women of the time. People often carried such carvings with them on long journeys. For example, a man going out to hunt might have tied one to his back or hip to protect him from danger.
Related Makonde figures appear on page 134, 135 and 136 of Art Makonde. (below)
Our example, as well as those above, are not necessarily colon objects. One of the most important events in the life of a Makonde was initiation. During this intensive months-long ritual, boys and girls were provided with knowledge and skills essential to the Makonde way of life. Carvings sometimes functioned as teaching tools in this context.
A typical Makonde pot surmounts Nampyopyo Kulombanungu's old figure. An applied surface is old and encrusted.
Hemba Ancestral Figure
Congo - DRC
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Hemba figures are mostly devoted to the representation of male ancestors called singiti. They were kept in small huts. Although every figure is the portrait of a specific person, artists portrayed generalized traits. The figures express symmetry and refinement. The serenely of the face reflects the ancestor’s interior calm. Hands on each side of the swelling belly indicate the ancestor embracing and watching over descendants.
The figure has been in a collection for over 20 years and dates to the 20th century.
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At some point the figure was abandoned to the elements, resulting in a dry weathered surface and base.
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