Supporting with her fingers placed in a fan shape the circular tray of a seat, a female figure forms the "receptacle of a deceased sovereign chief" (Luba, Roberts), a child at her side. Carved in a very dense wood. Dark patina with red highlights, cracks. This stool named lupona ,or kioni or kipona , kiona and still kitenta ("seat of authority"), according to the sources, constitutes the meeting point of the sovereign, his people, and the protective spirits and ancestors, where the past and present are symbolically and spiritually mixed. It was once the seat on which the Mulopwe king was enthroned. The seats were placed on leopard skins during the investiture of the new chief. It was only after he was seated that his speech took on a royal and divine character. Apart from these exceptional circumstances, the seats were not used and remained stored in secret locations. The hemba seats, with similar characteristics, are called kihona . Satin patina. Erosions despite a good general condition. The cradle of the Luba (Baluba in Tchiluba) is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu River. They were born from a secession of the Songhoy ethnic group. In the sixteenth century they created a state, organized in decentralized chieftaincies, that extended from the Kasai River to Lake Tanganyika. The chieftaincies cover a small territory with no real borders, and include no more than three villages. Source "Africa, The Art of a Continent" ed. Prestel; "Luba" F. Neyt.
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