Bell "dibu"

---

Description

wood, plant fibre, base

Simple wooden bells are attached to the necks of hunting dogs. The large, usually decorated “dibu” specimens are a symbol of the healer “nganga”.

The hunter follows the sound of the dog’s bell into the forest to catch the animals. Similarly the “nganga” uses a bell when he symbolically enters the spiritual world called “the forest of the ancestors” to seek the spirit or ancestor that is causing his client’s problems.

---

Comparing literature

Fagg, William, African Tribal Images, Cleveland 1968, ill. 226 Gansemans, Jos, Musical Instruments, Tervuren 2009, p. 144

---