Buyu / Boyo Figure - Congo - DRC
 

Late 19th or early 20th century origin.
 

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.

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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.

 

 

A strange oval shape appears on the back of the head.
 

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Tsonga - Ba Ronga Figure

Hunter Figure - Attributed to Muhlati

In the early 20th century, Muhlati was the most famous carver is SE Africa. He had extraordinary skills and creditably claimed to be able to carve anything from wood.

In 1927 Henry Junod published "The Life of a South African Tribe". Therein he wrote; 'The finest specimen of Native art that I ever saw is the carving of a huge panther about to devour a human being, the work of Muhlati, a sculptor living in the neighbourhood of Lourenso Marques. This artist, who was very proud of his work, and asked a tolerably high price for it, claimed to be able to carve anything and everything: birds, four-footed beasts, or men. He was famous throughout the land for his talent.

Without Junod's words, Muhlati's name, would have been lost to time, like so many other master carvers of African origin. His accumulated work may also have been reduced by academics as "from the school of master carver so and so", which they have done to many of Southern Africa's early indigenous artists. 

Our hunter sports a head ring, a 19th century fashioned adornment,

which once displayed the authority held by respected elders.

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It is written of  Muhlati, "Mlungu in Africa - art from he colonial period, 1840-1940" - Page 44 - M. Stevenson  and M. Graham-Stewart; His distinctive style is characterized by pokerwork representing hair and clothes on a blonde wood, and, more specifically, incised circular eyes heightened with pokerwork, circular ears with and intruding triangular form, slit mouths, hands with simplified parallel grooves for fingers, and a running motif of cross-hatching often on the base or support. - Other works by him are illustrated in Julius E Lips, The savage hits back, London, 1937,p.172, fig. 143 and Ubuntu Arts et cultures d’Afrique du Sud, Paris, 2002, no. 18 (a work in the collection of Musée National des Arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, Paris. (A99-29-5), Incorrectly ascribed to Basotho).

   

 

The figure sports a  buck slung over his back. It is 33 cms tall, or 13 inches and has a typically dry 19th to early 20th century patina.
 

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Rare Zulu - Tsonga Figured Pair

19 Century - Published

The Mlungu in Africa - art from the colonial period, 1840- 1940  Catalogue number 32 - Pages 64 - 65.

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 The Mlungu in Africa:  The carver of these relatively large figures has an idiosyncratic style that incorporates asymmetry to produce bulky and abstracted forms with unconventional volumes.

 

 

     

 

 

These large figures stand at 46 and 51 centimeters respectively, or 18 and 20 inches.

 

Large figurative work of  human form, is rare in the Southern African context. Both figures highlighted with pokerwork.

 

 

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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”

These figures can 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.

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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, girls and boys were provided with knowledge and skills essential to the Makonde way of life. Carvings sometimes functioned as teaching tools in this context.

 

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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 purchased from the same collection. We assume they were excluded as they were made for ritual purposes, not colonial items.

Reichard collected 1886

Reichard collected these pipes amounst 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 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.

 

The larger figure stands at 52 centimeters, our + - 20.5  inches.

The gallery entered into a discussion with tribal experts over the origins of these two figures. At one point it was agreed that they could be early collected Luguru, Makonde, Matumbi or Zaramo. Glass eyes were found used in the entire region. However, photographic records show that scarifications such as these were practiced only by the Makonde.

The smaller of the two figures base has been restored. It has Dutch looking beads around the neck, strung on a sort of old leather lookalike fabric. Each figure has an old string of white Venetian beads around the waist.

The center figure 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, but with Tabwa influence. The Bemba live to the west of the Makonde. 

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Hemba Ancestral Figure - Congo

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This figure has been in a collection for over 20 years and dates to the 20th century.

 

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At some point in it's past it became was totally abandoned to the elements,

resulting in the most surprisingly pleasing earthy result.

 

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Luba Kabila Figure

Antique Museum Reproduction

Female sitting or kneeling bowl figures are among the most impressive objects in Luba sculpture. Little is known of their function other than that such a figure is placed before the house of a woman after childbirth so that passers-by can put gifts of cowries into the bowl.

In the past such a figure was referred to as a kabila (“beggar woman”), but according to some recent authors the correct name is mboko (“calabash”). Others feel that the latter designation is only a cover because the Luba consider uttering the real but secret name, kitompa kya muchi (“divination bowl of wood”), dangerous.  

There are several types of bowl-holding figures, whose functions differ throughout the Luba region and this may explain the confusion in terminology. A close link with divination and healing seems to be common to all the bowls. For such purposes at least some of the bowls serve as receptacles for the white kaolin used in rituals. The colour white is prescribed for all contact with spirits, and the diviner therefore paints a client with white earth; he also paints himself white after all important ritual acts.

 When a chief takes office the first wife hands him a sacred calabash with white earth, the symbol of power. Other bowl- holding figures are considered the abode of the spirit with whose help the diviner heals the patient. Often the patient simply takes the bowl in his hands, is painted white, and immediately feels himself cured. Some patients must then spend their lives as slaves of the spirit that is of the diviner.

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This figure is a ceramic reproduction of a masterwork of Luba art.

The reproduction likely dates to the 1950's.

 

 

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Ba Tonka - Batonga Figure

Zimbabwe - Zambia

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A very small number of  guardian figures were collected from the  Ba Tonka (Batonka or Batonga) in the early 1980's. Known examples tend to have Chokwe related features, which is explained by the fact that the Zambezi river connects the two cultures.

 

 

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This remarkable example was painted with two colors and left exposed to the elements. Insects have added a most fascinating effect to this sculpture over time.

 

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East African Colon Figures

Mutisya Munge - Post WWI

Relic's of the Colonial Past - Kamba Carvings - Kenya  / Pg 46

The following three lots were collected in the U.K over the last 35 years by the documentary director, Maurice Kanareck, as a tribute to the Kamba tribesman Mutisya Munge.

Mutisya Munge was influenced by his service with the British Army in the Carrier Corps in Tanganyika. After the First World War, he went on to establish a new tradition in Kenya of carving figures and in particular of the "askaris" who served under both the British and German forces. These collections give a taste of the variety of colonial figures that were produced by various craftsmen between the two wars, a direct legacy of the innovative carver Mutisya Munge.

 

 

Click the thumb below to read more about Mutisya Munge's and his carving tradition.

 

 

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Trio "B"

 

These solders date to the era of Mutisya Munge.

Mutisya Munge was a carver in East Africa between the two world wars.

 

 

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Trio "A"

 

 Trio "A" figures were each made by the same carver.

 

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Trio "C"

 

Mutisya Munge's figures, as well as others of related carvers, form part of this collection.

 

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