African Arts Gallery

Ex Belgian African art collection.

Very common in Central Africa, this musical instrument or sanza anthropomorphic offers a sounding board forming the bust of the figure, on which metal slats are attached. The thumbs of both hands will rest on the soundboard to vibrate the front ends of the strips. In Zaire, however, where all the fingers are used as for the piano, groups of instruments play in complementary registers. Brown satin patina, abrasions. Once subject to the Luba, then the Lundas, the Zela have adopted many of their customs and traditions. Established between the Luvua River and Lake Kisale, they are now organized into four chiefdoms under the supervision of leaders of Luba origin. They venerate a primordial couple frequently represented in statuary, mythical ...

Widely used in Central Africa, this traditional African musical instrument or sanza consists of a sounding board to which parallel metal slats have been attached. The slats, of varying lengths, are sometimes made of bamboo. The thumbs of both hands will press on the board to vibrate the front ends of the strips. In Zaire, however, where all fingers are used as for the piano, groups of instruments play in complementary registers. The instrument will also sometimes accompany a singer.
This sanza is carved with a face and traditional decorative motifs.
Oiled brown patina, matt. Abrasions.

Ex-collection African art from Belgium.Very common in Central Africa, and particularly popular among the Chokwe, this musical instrument, named sanza or likende, depending on the region, consists of a soundboard in the form of a rectangular board. Ten metal tongues have been attached to it in parallel. The thumbs of the two hands will rest on the soundboard to make the front ends of the tongues vibrate. Many instruments of this type called muyemba are incomplete because they have been stripped of the accompanying calabash that formed the sounding board (p.18 of "Instruments de musique" Jos Gansemans. ed. Collections du MRAC).
Lustrous brown patina, abrasions. The Tschokwe, of Bantu culture, settled in eastern Angola, but also in Congo and Zambia. Following various ...

A zande percussion musical, this wooden idiophone is carved from a human bust. It extends in the shape of a dugout at the feet of which a character is depicted sitting, hands on ears. A long slit acts as a resonance opening. The walls are engraved with different decorative motifs. Satin patina.
odies referred to as " Niam-Niam " because they are considered anthropophages, the tribes grouped under the name Zande , Azandé , settled, from Chad, on the border of R.D.C.(Zaire), Sudan and the Central African Republic. According to their beliefs, man is endowed with two souls, one of whom turns into a totem animal of the clan to which he belongs. The African tribal art of the Zande, or "these who own a lot of land", apart from their court art consisting of spoons, receptable, pipes and ...

The Yaka surround each other in everyday life with charms embellished with carved cephalomorphic figures, such as this Yaka slit drum, mukoku ngombu, nkoku ngombu, intended for divination rituals. The head, which would appear the mediating soothsayer with a high cap, has widely surrounded coffee bean eyes and then highlighted with a "masque" extending to the ears peeled off. The mouth offers hemmed lips and the nose the drawing of large nostrils. The neck is embellished with a necklace of pearls, shards of pink mother-of-pearl and small shells.
Beautiful patina, blackish residual inlays.
With the Yaka, at the new moon, the soothsayer ngaanga ngoombu covers his face with kaolin before issuing an oracle. During its daytime passage into the basement, the moon is coated with ...

Alted in Central Africa, this musical instrument or sanza consists of a sounding board here taking on the appearance of the bust of a male figure. Parallel blades have been attached to it. The thumbs of both hands will lean on the soundboard to vibrate the anterior ends of the tabs. The sculptor's creativity, coupled with a great aesthetic sense, is manifested by the reminder of the vertical arrangement of the tabs in the digitized fingers and feet, which punctuates his work. Red-brown oiled patina with kaolin highlights. Formerly referred to as the name Niam-Niam because they are considered anthropophages, the tribes grouped under the name Zande, Azandé, settled from Chad on the border of R.D.C.(Zaire), Sudan and the Central African Republic. According to their beliefs, man is endowed ...

Ex-German African art collection.

Among the royal musical instruments of the Tschokwe, this ceremonial drum is supported by two carved faces. The latter, rising from a thick, partially damaged cylindrical base, adopt some of the features of the chihongo mask. In each chiefdom, an attendant would announce each solemn event by means of the drum. According to legend, the membrane of the instrument once concealed a second skin: that of a sacrificial victim. Dark brown patina, ochre residues.
Peacefully settled in eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwé were then subjected to the Lunda Empire from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sacredness of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwé never fully adopted these new social and political contributions. Three ...

Widespread in Central Africa, this musical instrument or sanza consists of a sound box on which parallel metal blades have been attached. The thumbs of both hands will lean on the soundboard to vibrate the anterior ends of the tabs. In Zaire, however, where all fingers are used as for the piano, groups of instruments play on complementary registers. Dark satin patina, abrasions.
The statuette, carved at the top in a round-bump, refers to notions of fertility and royal secrets. Her attitude indicates that the secrets of royalty, bizila, belong to women through their role as political and spiritual intermediaries. It is depicted wearing braids arranged in the style of shankadi. The Luba (Baluba in Tchiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is the Katanga, specifically the ...

Ex-collection of Belgian African art.

Widespread in Central Africa, this musical instrument or sanza consists of a resonant body taking here the appearance of the bust of a human figure. Metal tongues have been attached to it. The thumbs of both hands will lean on the soundboard to vibrate the front ends of the tongues. Dark satin patina, abrasions.
Formerly referred to as "Niam-Niam" because they were considered anthropophagous, the tribes grouped under the name Zande, Azandé, came from Chad to settle on the border of the D.R.C.(Zaire), Sudan and the Central African Republic. According to their beliefs, man is said to be endowed with two souls, one of which is transformed at his death into a totem animal of the clan to which he belongs. The African tribal art of the ...

The Yaka surround each other in everyday life with charms embellished with carved cephalomorphic figures, such as this Yaka slit drum, mukoku ngombu, nkoku ngombu , intended for divination and healing rituals. The head, which would appear the mediating soothsayer wearing a high cap, has coffee bean eyes deeply surrounded. The neck is surrounded by plant fiber ties that attach it to the stick. Beautiful patina of lustrous and sainized-at the Yaka, at the new moon, the soothsayer ngaanga ngoombu covers his face with kaolin before emitting an oracle. During its daytime passage into the basement, the moon is coated with this white clay. The night would convey the virtues of life. The Mukoku Nogombu is the miniature version of the large slit drums mondo and accompanies ritual songs. ...

This figure seated in a suit, holding his sex with both hands, is surmounted by a drum adorned with a face carved in relief. Wide open, glazed eyes are recurrent in Kongo statuary. They are associated with psychic abilities. The mouths reveal traditionally lined teeth. The drum is stretched with animal skin nailed to the contours highlighted by a raffia braid. The crusty, dark surface has localized red and burgundy pigments adjacent to residues dotted with white clay. Misses on the back. This object evoking virility could be associated with the rites of circumcision and the music that accompanied it. However more than one function were usually assigned to Yombe sculptures.
In the 13th century, the people Kongo , led by their king Ne Kongo, settled in a region at the crossroads of ...

African court art Mangbetu and statues of ancestors
This traditional musical instrument features a hollowed-out soundbox topped with a head. The stick that accompanies it in a miniature shape. The geometric patterns on the object evoke the bodily paintings and tribal scarifications of the Mangbetu, similar to those of the Asua pygmies with whom the tribe had relations. The latter varied depending on the circumstances. The fan hairstyle was sported by the Mangbetu: from an early age, the children were compressed from the cranial box by means of raffia bonds. Later, the Mangbetu \

The Baga live along the Atlantic coast of the Republic of Guinea in West Africa. They are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Guinea, and have lived relatively isolated from their neighbours because of the vast swamps that surround them. They have, however, left a vast artistic legacy, which includes crests, figurative sculptures, masks, and everyday objects such as musical instruments.
This drum named timba, and matimbo in neighbouring groups, was played during the initiation ceremonies of the members of the association A-Tekan , on the occasion of the funeral of its members or for the wedding of their daughters . It is by its size that this drum differs from the other drums used in the A-Tekan, which requires its user to stand to play the instrument. He also intervened during ...

Percussion musical instrument of the 'a target'_blank' 'new'nofollow' href'https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Mangbetu_ (people)'' Mangbetu, , this half-moon-shaped wooden idiophone has been fitted with a long slot that acts as a resonant opening. It is endowed with an anthropomorphic handle that includes the features of the ancestor figures nebeli .
The Mangebetu Kingdom in northern Congo produced architectural works that impressed European visitors in the 19th century. Their furniture, weapons, adornments and statuary were imbued with a rare aesthetic quality. The ethnologist G.A. Schweinfurth in 1870 described its symmetry and refinement, while at the same time testifying to the ritual killings and human sacrifices practiced by the people of elongated heads. The slot drum is not ...

This figurative slot drum incorporates the characters of the buti sculptures embodying the ancestors of the clan or those of statues for individual use. The resonant case is sheathed with animal skin fixed by thin brass heads. The stick, connected to the instrument by a string, offers a delicately carved tip of a similar head.
Black brown satin and mahogany satin.
Andeblis between the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon, the Téké were organized into chiefdoms whose leader was often chosen from among the blacksmiths. The head of the family, mfumu , had the right to life or death over his family whose importance determined his prestige. The clan leader, gantsié , kept the great protective fetish tr hated who oversaw all the ceremonies. It was the ...

Ex-collection Belgian tribal art.
Mangbetu's African art offers a wide variety of everyday objects, instruments and adornments. However, many of the objects attributed to them are from the Nzakara whose prestigious sculptures are stylistically comparable.
Among the aerophones, originally carved from antelope horns or in the ivory of elephant trunks, this type of lateral-mouthed tube was used to produce coded sounds for the purpose of communication within the group, in a context of hunting, rituals around hunting, or to make music supposed to please ancestral spirits during funeral ceremonies. The object refers to the ancestors by its iconography, identifiable by the headdress of the character, the aesthetic canon of the mangbetu aristocracy. From an early age, children's ...

The African art of Mangbetu offers a wide variety of everyday objects, instruments and adornments. However, many of the objects attributed to them are from the Nzakara whose prestigious sculptures are stylistically comparable.
Among the aerophones, originally carved from antelope horns or in the ivory of elephant trunks, this type of lateral-mouthed tube was used to produce coded sounds for the purpose of communication within the group, in a context of hunting, rituals around hunting, or to make music supposed to please ancestral spirits during funeral ceremonies. The object refers to the ancestors by its iconography, identifiable by the headdress of the character, the aesthetic canon of the mangbetu aristocracy. From an early age, children's skulls were compressed with raffia ...

The omnipresence of sacred instruments in African art
Anthropomorphic arched harps are frequently found in sub-Saharan Africa. These musical instruments accompany traditional songs during ritual ceremonies, as well as initiation rites during the vigils of the bwiti .
The abdomen of a stylized figure, carried by long feet, forms the sounding board of this sacred five-string harp. An antelope skin, oiled, is stretched on the cavity. The handle features a long neck topped with a sculpted head, characterized by large metal orbits and a mouth forming a pout, referring to the ancestors of the clan.
OrangePatine.

The African art of Lega, Balega, or Warega , is distinguished by its statuettes and initiation masks, some of which were kept in a basket for the highest bwami officers of different communities. The Bwami, a secret society admitting men and their wives, governing social life, was subdivided into initiation stages, the highest being the Kindi. Music played a major role in rituals, such as this anthropomorphic musical instrument whose sounding board consisting of a drum stretched from a skin is located at the level of the character's abdomen. Faces with smiling faces, whose heart-whitening orbits, reminiscent of lega masks, are superimposed. The ropes were replaced by the previous owner. Desication cracks.
Following their exodus from Uganda in the 17th century, the Lega settled on the ...

Among the wind instruments, or aerophones, this bamboo flute crosses a hemispheric calabash, with an opening, forming a sounding board. The latter rests on a wicker strap held at the top by ropes with a handles. The stick has a whistle end, a handle surmounted by a figure is carved at the opposite end. Engraved cruciform patterns adorn the handle. The object was stabilized by adding sand to the gourd. The mumuye ethnic groups of the Middle Benue, the Kugong in particular, accompany the funeral ceremonies of songs and dances that are punctuated by various musical instruments: flutes named lere , tambourines of various shapes, gba (the sound being produced by an iron ring on a tool blade), gourds containing pebbles, bells worn at the ankles.

The Kuba are renowned for the refinement of decorative art objects created for members of the high ranks of their society: cups and drinking horns, baskets, weapons, neck rests, chairs, masks and statues. These items were also offered to passing visitors. The Leus live in the west of the Kuba kingdom and share common cultural characteristics with the Bushoong of the Kuba country. Both groups adorn their prestige objects with similar motifs.
Their musical instruments, among which there are various carved drum forms, accompanied the masked dances or funeral ceremonies of the initiation societies. Decorated with zoomorphic figurative motifs evoking forest animals, this drum set on a flared base is also equipped with a handle adorned with a face extended with one hand. Held by small ...