African Arts Gallery

The artistic production of the Ngombe, relatively limited, was marked by the influence of neighbouring groups, Ngbandi and Ngbaka . These sculptures, most of them magical fetishes, were used by the soothsayer bendo to encourage hunting. The Ngombe emigrated from Lake Victoria to East Africa. After scattering, some of them settled among the Ngala on the banks of the Zaire River.This abstract figure where the head bears large bleached cavities indicating eyes, presents an open structure in which a cylindrical cavity would form the abdomen, supported by an arc composing the legs. The whole thing rises from a rounded base.
as satin dark brownpatine. Light abrasions.

Ex French African art collection.
This ancient African mask shares a streaked nasal ridge with the sculpture Ngbaka and that of the Ngbandi. It extends here on the forehead of a scarification in the ear. The large orbits surrounded by a rib appear to be washed of any kaolin residue, some of which remain set deep in the smooth surface of the wood. Haloes show washes or contact with moisture. Metal shows the teeth in the quadrangular mouth. Damaged lower edges. In the north-west of Zaire, south of Oubangui, on the banks of the Lualaba, live the 120,000 Ngombe , led by a leader and a war like elombe. Their neighbors are the Ngbandi and the Ngbaka whose statuary has influenced their tribal sculpture, and various groups banda. Their masks of geometric appearance intervene during the ...