African art and sculpted figures from Gabon This statuette, probably pertaining to the cult of the Mbete ancestors, is made up of stylized, geometric figures leaning against a central trunk, with the top forming a small dome. Their flat faces present a characteristic physiognomy. The arms are folded in right angle. Two-tone patina. It is on the border of the Middle Congo and Gabon that the Mbété , Ambété , who claim a Kota origin, settled. Neighbors of the Obamba, their history has been marked by a long-standing conflict against the Teke. Brazza discovered them in 1877. Practicing ancestor worship, the Ngoye , like their close neighbors, their statues contained the relics of the deceased, usually through a back cavity. They have no centralized political organization, practice ancestor worship, and use statues in place of conventional reliquary boxes.
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