African Arts Gallery

br>Often associated with the therapeutic cult of the Hamba type, this type of female figure for personal use incarnates a female ancestor believed to guarantee fertility or healing. They could be arranged around the muyombo altar, a tree at the foot of which sacrifices and offerings were once made.
Glossy patina with abrasions of use.

Traces of ocher pigments. Crack at the base. 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 centuries later, they ended up seizing the capital of the Lunda weakened by internal conflicts, thus contributing to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwé did not have centralized power but large chiefdoms. They were the ones who attracted artists wishing to put their know-how at the exclusive service of the court. The artists created so many varied pieces and of such quality that the Lunda court only employed them.
Source: "Chokwe", B. Wastiau; "Chokwe and their Bantu Neighbors" ed.J. David and G. Merzeder.