African Arts Gallery

Human figure associated with ancestor worship and fertility rites. The figure represents a masked person. Her bust is tied, a pearl and a cowrie assembled and tied in the small of the back. A fragment of leather remains on the posterior part of the head. Dark patina, abrasions.
Formerly living from hunting and agriculture, a warrior people, the Salampasu form a tribe of the Lulua group and are settled between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, east of the Kasai River. They are surrounded to the west and south by the Tschokwe and the Lunda, and to the north and east by the Kete and the Lwalwa. A hierarchy of masks, simple wooden kasangu masks and copper-covered mukinka masks, was associated with the society of mungongo warriors (pl. < i>bangongo ). The wearing of these masks depended on a large contribution of livestock, drink, or other material goods from the aspirant who was initiated into esoteric knowledge from the other mask wearers. (Africa, Prestel)