Anthropomorphic bark container "bukuru iga he"

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Description

bark, wood, darkbrown patina, black paint, earrings and necklace of miniature glass beads, base in form of a four-legged stool with hoofed feet, the cylindrical box sewn with plant fibre, the head fixed by nails, slightly dam. (left ear, feet);
the precise function of these boxes remains unclear, though some were used as reliquary boxes containing body parts of the deceased preserved in honey; but most of them were used to store jewels or precious artifacts. The elongated head adheres to the typical aesthetic features of the Mangbetu, a people known for their practice of head shaping, a sign of beauty and intelligence. Even the origin of this bark boxes is uncertain. Nonetheless, one notes that some of the Mangbetus neighbours (the Boa and the Zande) also made such objects. Among the people in contact with the Mangbetu who made, at least until recently, much use of bark honey boxes, are the Asua pigmies.

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Comparing literature

Baeke, Viviane (ed.), Treasures from the Africa-Museum Tervuren, Tervuren 1995, p. 257, ill. 225 Felix, Marc L., 100 Peoples of Zaire and their Sculpture, Brussels 1987, p. 99 Burssens, Herman, Mangbetu, Afrikaanse hofkunst uit Belgische privé-verzamlingen, Brüssel 1992, p. 71

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