African Arts Gallery

This African mask embodying the god Alunga was used during the tribal ritual of the male Kalunga society, Alunga, exercising social control over the clan , and responsible for the public dances and ceremonies preceding the hunt. Evocation of a spirit of the forest, this mask was kept in the sacred caves and it was during festivals associated with hunting and ancestor cults that it was exhibited.
Grainy patina, cracks and gaps at the top.
The Bembe ethnic group is a Luba branch that left the Congo in the 18th century. Their society and artistic tendency are marked by the influence of their neighbors in the Lake Tanganyika region, the Lega, the Buyu, etc. Indeed, like the Lega, the Bembe had a bwami association responsible for initiation and structuring society, but whereas the bwami was exclusive to the Lega, other associations coexisted among the Bembe.