Diviner's basket with a small mask "kifwebe"

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Description

wickerwork, wood, plant fibre, flat round basket with a whitened maskette attached in the centre, eyezone and mouth accentuated with red pigment, plant fibre beard, concentrical grooves on the forehead, slightly dam. (rim on top), spot from moisture, base;
such fetish baskets belonged to a diviner “nganga”, who used them in rituals to counteract supernatural attacks by “ndoshi” (= a witch specializing in harmful supernatural interventions, akin to black magic in the Western world).

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Comparing literature

Woods, Davy, Kifwebe Maskettes of the Luba and Songye, In: Tribal Art Magazine (48), Spring 2008, p.112, ill. 22

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Publications

Rielau, Hans Dietrich, Afrikanische Miniaturen, Norderstedt 2011, p. 30

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