African Arts Gallery

Luluwa Mask (N° 19774)

Used for circumcision rites and funerals of dignitaries, this Luluwa mask has a rounded crest and a handle that evokes a beard. Curvilinear motifs and keloids alternate on the surface. According to Rik Ceyssens in "Congo Masks" (p.156. ed. M.L.Félix) and as attested by the sketches of H.M.Lemme who accompanied Frobenius during his travels in the Congo, this pattern of looped scarification was widespread in various Luluwa sub-groups in 1905. The Bakwa also sported this type of tribal scarring. Height on base: 50 cm .
.
It was in the south of the Democratic Republic of Congo that the Lulua , or Béna Lulua ,from West Africa settled. Their social structure, based on castes, is similar to that of the Luba. They produced few masks, but mostly statues of ancestors representing the ideal warrior, mulalenga wa nkashaama, as well as the chief of the Leopard society and mbulenga statuettes related to nature spirits. Despite Kalamba Mukwenge's attempt, in the late nineteenth century, to eradicate traditional cults by means of burning, the religious system continued, such as the fertility cult tshibola . (Tribal art of black Africa. JB Bacquart; "Umbangu, Art du Congo au Musée Royal du Cogo Belge" ed. Cultura.)