African Arts Gallery

This rather atypical African sculpture was a tool of communication with the ancestors used by the diviner during divination rituals. Symbol, for the Luba, of the spiritual power available to women, the sculpted figure adopts the "hands on the chest" posture indicating its importance within royalty. Beautiful warm brown satin patina, slight chips.

The Luba, or Baluba in Chiluba, are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu river, thus 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, Roberts".