Female commemorative figure "efomba"
Description
wood, brown patina, red paint and pigment, kaolin, glass beads (ear ornament), box-shaped body with open backside, painted with diamond-shaped ornaments, flat face with incised scarification marks, drilled hole (head/neck/box), slightly dam., missing parts (right hand), traces of insect caused damage, abrasion of paint, base;
among the most visually striking African art objects are the highly elongated anthropomorphic coffins of the Nkundu, a western Congolese population formerly known as the Ngata. Research from the 1950’s revealed that some of these coffiins were “efomba”, commemorative sculptures, placed on top of the deceased’s grave or kept in his or her house as a memento mori. Figures smaller in size, as the one shown here, may have fullfilled the same function.