African Arts Gallery

Mangbetu Box (N° 13398)

Ex-collection Belgian African art.
Boîte for honey, remedies and sometimes personal effects such as ivory hairpins, this anthropomorphic bark box once again illustrates the skill of African art sculptors among the Mangbetu. Made of bark, the box has clear residues on the internal walls. The object is equipped with a conveyor belt. The hairstyle of the statue is characteristic of that of the Mangbetu women: from an early age, the children suffered a compression of the cranial box by means of raffia ties. Later, the young women were knitting their hair on wicker strands and applied a headband to the forehead to extract the hair and produce this particular headdress that accentuates the lengthening of the head. The ancient names beli these figures of ancestors stored out of sight and comparable to those belonging to their secret society nebeli . The Mangebetu kingdom was expressed through architectural works that impressed European visitors in the 19th century. Their furniture, weapons, adornments and statuary were imbued with a rare aesthetic quality.