Tribal Art

Wearing a crest in the shape of a bird, this majestically arched female figure rests with thick forearms on a small pelvis. Slender arms release the tension of the bust on which a firm chest points. The base - pestle, "sedine" or "dol" depending on the dialect, extends the legs. Medium brown satin patina, minor abrasions and drying cracks.
The Senoufos, so named by the French settlers, are mainly made up of farmers who have dispersed between Mali, Ivory Coast, and Burkina Faso. Councils of elders, headed by an elected chief, administer the Senufo villages. Each of them has its own Poro association introducing young boys from the age of 7 in a succession of three cycles lasting seven years. The Debele Senoufo, or "child of the Poro", "spirit of the bush", intervened in pairs at the ...

The clearly contrasting proportions of this Dogon sculpture are striking here, highlighting the supernatural nature of the subject.
Old restoration of an arm. Matte patina speckled golden brown. Minor desiccation cracks.
In Dogon mythology, one of the Nommos, ancestors of men resurrected by the creator god Amma, descended to earth carried by an ark transformed into a horse. In addition, the highest authority of the Dogon people, the religious leader named Hogon, paraded on his mount during his enthronement because according to custom he should not set foot on the ground. In the region of the Sangha cliffs, inaccessible on horseback, the priests wore it, while neighing in reference to the mythical ancestor Nommo. The rider and his horse are a theme frequently treated among ...

Water vessel with cup carrier design. Three protrusions act as handles. Zoomorphic subjects adorn the walls. Sculpture from the Luba and related groups depicts the woman and her connection to royalty and the bavidye spirits. Minor chips, old restoration of an excrescence.
Formerly subject to the Luba, then to the Lundas, the Zela, Muzela, or Wazela, have adopted a large part of their customs and traditions. Established between the Luvua River and Lake Kisalé, they are today organized into four chiefdoms under the supervision of leaders of Luba origin. They venerate a primordial couple frequently represented in statuary, mythical ancestors, and dedicate offerings to the spirits of nature.

Emblem of feminine beauty, always worn by initiates of higher rank, this ancient African mask embodying an ancestor is embellished with a curly hairstyle representing that, modeled in clay, of Tschokwe women. The features offer great expressiveness, curls originally adorned the ears. Deep nuanced, satin patina. Abrasions, losses. Height on base: 46 cm.
The African Chokwe pwo masks, among the numerous akishi masks (sing: mukishi, indicating power) of African Chokwe art, embody an ideal of beauty, Mwana Pwo, or the Pwo woman and appear today during festive ceremonies. The pwo are believed to bring fertility and prosperity to the community. The characteristic patterns present on the forehead, and sometimes on the cheekbones, are part of the Chokwe aesthetic canons but also served ...

Embodying the founder of a lineage, this wooden sculpture of the Mahongwe, from the extreme north-east of Gabon, on the Congo border, is lined with metal threads. The concave ogival face surmounted by an excrescence would symbolize for some the serpent naja. The pattern on the back recalls the hairstyle of certain dignitaries.
The baskets containing the relics of illustrious ancestors, generally surmounted by two reliquaries, were kept in temples in the village. One of them embodied the founder of the lineage, and the second his descendants. The worship of ancestors, the bwete (Northern Kota) was at the heart of the social and religious life of the Kota and presents many analogies with that of the Fang . In the exclusive presence of initiates, the major decisions of the clan ...

The tribal art of the Byeri cult is illustrated by various anthropomorphic sculptures acting as "guardians" and embodying the ancestor. This sculpted figure, intended to be introduced into a reliquary basket by the peduncle, has a prognathic jawbone in which a pout emerges. The amplitude of the pelvis and thighs contrasts with the rest of the morphology. Fanned fingers are joined in front of the torso. Extended in the nape of a ponytail, voluminous shells complete the metallic ornaments. Black oiled patina, semi-matte.
The boxes containing the relics of illustrious ancestors were guarded by the oldest man in the village, the "esa". Surmounted by a statue or a head that acted as guardian of the "byeri" boxes, they were supposed to deflect evil influences. They were also used ...

This Dogon statue, narrow, with stretched limbs, represents a kneeling woman. Repeated ritual libations have given the surface a grainy appearance. The desiccated, cracked wood bears the marks of time. Carved for the most part on commission by a family and in this case arranged on the family altar Tiré Kabou, the Dogon tribal statues can also be the object of worship by the entire community when they commemorate, for example, the founding of the village. These statues, sometimes embodying the nyama of the deceased, are placed on ancestor altars and participate in various rituals including those of the seed and harvest periods. Their functions, however, remain little known. In parallel with Islam, Dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lebe , relating to ...

Lobi sculptures and African art.
Naturalist carved figurine with a protective purpose, polished by use.
These statuettes were placed on the altar after a ritual to be the receptacle of a bush spirit, the Thil, and thus become an active being, an intermediary fighting against wizards and all other harmful forces. When honored, these spirits would manifest their benevolence in the form of abundant rains, good health, and numerous births; ignored, they would withdraw it and bring devastating epidemics, drought, and suffering.
They are supposed to transmit to the diviners the laws that the followers must follow in order to enjoy their protection.
They are represented by wooden or copper sculptures called Bateba (large or small, figurative or abstract, they adopt ...

Like their Kuba neighbors, the Lele have a wide variety of ceremonial sculptures, such as this cup used during divination rites, pacts, ritual ceremonies. This copy stands out thanks to its original design, giving it great elegance.
Beautiful glossy dark patina. Desication cracks.
The Kuba are renowned for the refinement of prestige items created for members of the high ranks of their society. Several Kuba groups indeed produced anthropomorphic objects with refined motifs including cups, drinking horns and goblets. The Lele are established in the west of the Kuba kingdom, at the confluence of the Kasai and Bashilele rivers. The intercultural exchanges between the Bushoong of the Kuba territory and the Lele have made the attribution of certain objects difficult, because ...

Beautiful balance for this African tribal sculpture, an element of African furniture that must preserve the voluminous traditional headdresses, characterized by its animal motif and its shiny patina.

Peacefully settled in eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwé were then subjected to the Lunda empire, from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sacredness of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwé never fully adopted these new social and political contributions. Three centuries later, they ended up seizing the capital of the Lunda weakened by internal conflicts, thus contributing to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwé did not have centralized power but large chiefdoms. They were the ones who attracted artists wishing to put their know-how at the ...

Witnesses to the traditions of the Hopi Indian peoples of Arizona, the sculpted Katsinam (sing. Kachina) objects are expressed during traditional dances accompanying the annual festivals in favor of the rain. Traditional Kachina dolls are, for the Amerindian Pueblo group (Hopi, Zuni, Tewa Village, Acoma Pueblo and Laguna Pueblo), educational tools offered to children at the end of ritual celebrations. These statuettes, embodying a great diversity of spirits, represent the katchina dancers and the colors are associated with the cardinal points.
The patina is matte and velvety, minor abrasions, restoration on one foot.

A mutation of the Fang Ngil mask, the African masks Bikereu caricatured European settlers and appeared after the colonizing government banned the Ngil mask of justice, but have an analogous function. The eyebrows form a prominent arch which extends into the bridge of the nose, under which a mustache-shaped shape surmounts a toothed grin.

Abraded matte patina, old restoration, cracks and erosions. Height on base: 75 cm.
Among the Fang, the male brotherhood of Ngil had the main task of fighting against sorcerers and evildoers. These masks were also worn for the initiation of its new members. Their white color, a reference to the deceased, means that the mask embodied an ancestral spirit. The mask has forbidding features, meant to surprise, accompanied by numerous ...

This African mask Songye, the kikashi, offers here an almost vertical plane of the cheeks, giving a rather compact impression. The arc of the half-closed eyelids is underlined with red ochre, while areas of arcuate streaks and oblique grooves alternate on the face. The crest outlined in black is present but modest. The mouth treated in cube has an internal curve. Damaged edges, abraded matte patina.


Three variants of this mask Kifwebe ( pl. Bifwebe) or "chasing death" (Roberts), from the society of the same name, are distinguished: the masculine (kilume) generally with a high crest, the feminine (kikashi) with a very low or absent crest, and finally the tallest embodying power (kia ndoshi). This type of mask, still used today, seems to come from the border zone between ...

French African art collection.
Three male figures with Nimba's heads support this spectacular, conical baga drum, adorned with a well-preserved polychromy. The skin of the drum, stretched and held by ropes and large studs, has many traces of use. Called timba by the Baga, matimbo by the Pokur and The Nalu, this musical instrument was played by men with chopsticks during ceremonial rituals.
Mêlés aux Nalu and Landuman , the Baga live along the coasts of Guinea-Bissau in areas of swamps flooded six months a year. These Baga groups based on the coast and living from rice farming are made up of seven subgroups, including the Baga Kalum, Bulongic, Baga sitem, Baga Mandori, etc. They believe in a creative god called Nagu, Naku, which they do not represent, and which is accompanied ...

The Mangbetu statues probably represent ancestors of the clan. They display incisions in connection with the body paintings and the scarifications of the group, comparable to those of the Asua pygmies with whom the tribe maintained relations. These reasons varied according to the circumstances. The fan hairstyle was worn by the Mangbetu: from an early age, children suffered compression of the cranial box by means of raffia ties. Later, the Mangbetu would "knit" their hair on wicker strands and apply a headband to the forehead in order to extract the hair and produce that particular headdress which accentuates the elongation of the head. The ancients call these figures of ancestors stored out of sight and comparable to those belonging to their secret society nebeli beli.
Shiny dark ...

Sometimes called a "settler", this African statuette forms the incarnation of a spiritual husband, sculpted according to the indications of the diviner. In "African art, Western eyes" Susan Vogel reports that a figure of this type (p.255), idealized spouse, is represented dressed in a city outfit because the spouse is supposed to have a job in city. The earthly spouse, through the cult rendered to this spiritual double, expects to have his resources, his favors and his protection unfailingly. About sixty ethnic groups populate Côte d'Ivoire, including the Baoulé, in the center, Akans from Ghana, people of the savannah, practicing hunting and agriculture just like the Gouro from whom they borrowed the cults and masks.
Irregular polychrome patina, abrasions. Desication cracks ...

This relatively flat mask was made in a certain type of turtle shell by the Ndaaka, a tribe of farmers living in contact with groups of pygmy hunters Mbuti within the ituri forest, north of umaniema . The latter's artistic productions have thus greatly influenced the ethnic groups in the region. On this mask, if the artist did not take advantage of the natural relief of the shell, volumes could be created at the cheeks, geometric scarifications enhancing their bulge. Frontal wrinkles are in pyrogravure, other lines highlight the facial features, a thin horizontal groove also divides the face through the nose. The natural contours of the lower part of the shell, almost jagged under the chin, evoke a small beard. Like many peoples, the Ndaaka have sought to appropriate the qualities of ...

Thick, slightly convex in shape and quite frustrated except for the detail of a regular metal dentition, this rare mask comes from the forested regions of Ituri in the north of Umaniema. A number of small groups of farmers in the clearings live in contact with the Mbuti pygmies of the forest, these are the Bali, Ndaka, Mbo, Lombi, etc. Most often flat and pigmented with white in reference to the animal world, these masks associated with their raffia costumes perform during ceremonies nkundi seed to initiations and circumcisions of young people. The sculptor's tool marks the surface of this monochrome mask carved into the bark. The arcades have an asymmetry.
Nested Dark Eye.
Hightop on a base: 32 cm.
Ref.: Congo masks Ed. M.L. Felix

Schematized anthropomorphic figure, whose structure is highlighted by alternating colored planes. The face with geometric features is topped with a unique linen beret. Velvety, abraded surface, slight desication cracks.
The Mitsogho ethnic group, Sogho, is established in a forest region on the right bank of the Ngoumé River, Ngounié, near the Kwele. Bwiti society, which has a system of reliquaries comparable to that of the Fang and the Kota, formed the cohesion of the Mitsogho matrilineal clans. Their masks were exhibited at funerals, and stored in the ebanza male initiation house. Like the other ethnic groups of Gabon, they practice the rites of the Bwiti which would have spread in this way among the coastal peoples. Their sculptural production is varied, in the form of statues, ...

Helm mask surmounted by a figure of a dancer wearing a mangam zoomorphic mask symbolizing the buffalo. The ceremonial mangam masks of the "Mama", who make up within the same region a group of different origins and languages, are used by the members of a men's association responsible for maintaining the social order and to increase or promote agricultural production. Two-tone crusty patina. Desication cracks.
This mask whose horns symbolize fertility is danced during festivals in relation to agricultural fertility and sometimes human fertility.
The Mama buffalo masks are kept in the sacred wood and are brought back to the village to accompany the deceased into the world of the beyond or to participate in the enthronement of a chief.

The Mumuye in African tribal art.
Mask depicting a stylized "bust", it has a front surface bristling with a series of growths. Nail inlays form geometric patterns. Shiny patina encrusted with matt clear pigments. Erosions and cracks. Occurring occasionally in pairs, this mask could be accompanied by a horizontal mask during rituals preceding the wars. Its appearance is nowadays linked to apotropaic ceremonies and the call for rain.

South of the Benoué River, in a region of difficult access which isolated them until 1950, are the Mumuye, who are organized into family groups called dola. This type of mask is found in the northwestern region of the middle Benoué, from the Kona Jukun, to the Mumuye and up to the Wurkun populations. The 100,000 Adamawa language speakers ...