African Arts Gallery

Idealized evocation of a woman or a saint, this type ofAfrican mask would have followed the arrival of white missionaries at the end of the 19th century. The face with rounded cheeks, offering vestiges of polychrome pigments, offers meticulously rendered detail. Patina of chipped use. The stable base eliminates the need for a stand.
These masks were produced during different traditions: investitures, funerals, and rites against witchcraft in different initiatory societies. In the eastern part of the Luba region, important ceremonies take place in honor of the clan's ancestors, deceased chiefs, and the new moon. Offerings are then granted to the spirits of nature, intermediaries between the group and the ancestors.
The Luba, or Baluba in Chiluba, are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu river, hence the name (Baluba, which means "the Luba"). They were born from a secession of the Songhoy ethnic group, under the leadership of Ilunga Kalala who killed the old king Kongolo who has since been revered in the form of a python. In the 16th century they created a state, organized as a decentralized chiefdom, which stretched from the Kasai River to Lake Tanganyika. The chiefdoms cover a small territory with no real border that includes at most three villages.
“Luba” 5 Continents. Roberts