African Arts Gallery

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 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 ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

French African art collection.
Arms, jewellery, coins, metal objects are inseparable from traditional African art. Metallurgy is intimately associated with the founding myths of many African cultures, such as blacksmiths turned kings (Zaire), the anvil hammer being the symbol of power among the Luba. Cult accessories, the metal alloy gongs, some highly decorated, take on a wide variety of shapes. This double gong, in its simplicity, was a sacred instrument and the emblem of one of the many male societies of the peoples of Grassland, the Kwifoyn, whose headquarters adjoined the royal palace. The tinkling of wooden rods on hollow metal announced the beginning of ceremonies: communication with the supernatural world, ancestors, deities, could be established. Also prestigious objects, ...

Ex private collection of African art Emile Robyn (Brussels, Belgium).

The balafon, or xylophone, belongs to the family of idiophones from West Africa. The sound is generated by the reverb in the gourds of the percussion on the aligned wooden blades. Literally, the word balafon comes from the Malinke bala" meaning "instrument" and "fon" meaning "sound". The particularity of Djanou is to be raised at its ends and provided with handles of transport. It was Emile's grandfather, Abel Robyn, who started the collection in 1850. It was passed on over three generations. When Abel died in 1895, his son Jerome Robyn inherited this collection which he extended until his death in 1968. Emile Robyn inherited from his father and completed this magnificent collection over his purchases that ...