African Arts Gallery

This object called galukoshi, intended for divination ("Pende" Strother, ed. 5Continents, fig. 8), is made up of an assembly of articulated rods, the first of which is embellished with a face sculpted in the image of the masks of initiation. The whole is decorated with numerous feathers.
The western Pende live on the banks of the Kwilu, while the eastern people have settled on the banks of the Kasai downstream from Tshikapa. The influences of neighboring ethnic groups, Mbla, Suku, Wongo, Leele, Kuba and Salempasu imprinted on their large tribal art sculpture. Within this diversity, the Mbuya masks, realistic, produced every ten years, take on a festive function, and embody different characters that are difficult to differentiate without their costume, including the chief fumu or ufumu, the diviner and his wife, the prostitute, the jester, tundu, the possessed, etc... The Mbuya initiation masks linked to the mukanda initiation and those of power, the minganji, represent the ancestors and occur successively during the same ceremonies, agricultural festivals, mukanda initiation and circumcision rituals, enthronement of the chief. (Art and Life in Africa, C.D. Roy; "Pende" Strother)