African Arts Gallery

African tribal art and ancestor carvings for fertility and healing rituals. Male figure of realistic type, whose keloids are drawn on the bust. These scarifications bear witness to the successive stages of initiation to which an individual had been subjected. Sometimes set with ivory or earthenware, the almond-shaped eyes are encrusted with horn. Smooth surface, mahogany and black patina.
Established on the plateaus of the People's Republic of Congo ex.Brazzaville, and not to be confused with the Bembe group of northern Lake Tanganinyika, the small group Babembé, Béembé, was influenced by the Téké rites and culture, but especially by that of the Kongos. Settled in the current Republic of Congo, the Béembé originally formed the kingdom of Kongo, with the Vili, Yombé, Bwendé and Woyo. They were under the tutelage of king ntotela elected by the governors. The head of the village, nga-bula, was responsible for interceding with the ancestors. Hunting being a major activity, the ancestors were invoked through statuettes. These idealized representations of ancestors, kitebi or bimbi consecrated by the sorcerer, sported the attributes of hunters or healers. Some of them, as among the Bakongo, were minkisi magic objects comprising nails and which were equipped with orifices into which medicines, bilongo, or relics of ancestors, were introduced.