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.

Click Thumbnails for Larger Images

 

Enjoy this images of a seldom seen Chokwe female figure.

 

Click Thumbnails for Larger Images

 

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 active in 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.

Click Thumbnails for Larger Images

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, the most famous regional carver.

*