African Arts Gallery

The Luba are famous in particular for their neckrests and stools made of a caryatid figure. Neckrests protecting headdresses during the night were also used to support the heads of the deceased, and sometimes, according to Albert Maesen, buried in their place. These female figures embodying the spirit of an ancestor, vidiye, seated face to face, intertwined, form the "receptacle of a deceased sovereign chief" (Luba, Roberts). Beautiful lustrous patina, abrasions.

The Luba (Baluba in Chiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu River, hence the name (Baluba, which means “the Lubas”). They were born from a secession of the Songhoy ethnic group, under the leadership of Ilunga Kalala who killed the old king Kongolo who has since been revered in the form of a python. In the 16th century they created a state, organized as a decentralized chiefdom, which stretched from the Kasai River to Lake Tanganyika. The chiefdoms cover a small territory without any real border which includes at most three villages. Source: "Luba" F. Neyt The Luba (Baluba in Tchiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu River, hence the name (Baluba, which means "the Lubas"). They were born from a secession of the Songhoy ethnic group, under the leadership of Ilunga Kalala, who caused the death of the old king Kongolo, who has since been venerated in the form of a python. In the sixteenth century they created a state, organized in decentralized chieftaincies, which extended from the Kasai River to Lake Tanganyika. The chieftaincies cover a small territory with no real borders, and include at most three villages. Source: "Luba" F. Neyt