African Arts Gallery

Ceremonial ax of the Kete Lulua type, of particularly creative design. The Lulua-type head is artistically sculpted, and bears a saurian motif whose tail runs like a braided hairstyle down the character's back. The handle is represented by a tubular neck extending from a leg then from a fingered foot. Like the Tschokwe, the object is encrusted with nails, arranged in decorative sections.
Slight losses and desication cracks.
The Kete, established between the Luba and the Songye, have intermingled with the Kuba and the Tschokwe and derive their subsistence from hunting, net fishing, and agriculture. Their matrilineal society worships nature spirits called mungitchi through offerings and incantations. Believing in reincarnation, they also fear a supreme god called mboom. The rituals of their initiation societies are different from those of the Kuba. Some Kete villages used to pay tax to the King of the Kuba. Groups borrowed masks from their neighbors or picked up certain features that they combined with their own creations.