Janiform power figure "kabeja"

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Description

wood, pigments, bone, wire, base

“Kabeja” figures are seen as visual icon of the primordial couple, the founders of the society (“abeja” = woman, “makua” = man).

In his standard work “La Grande Statuaire Hemba du Zaire”, François Neyt notes: “Whether administering justice (“kihona”), making an offering to the ancestor (“lusingiti”) …, these janus “kabeja” were always present” (Neyt, 1977, p. 483).

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Comparing literature

Neyt, François, La Grande Statuaire Hemba du Zaire, Louvain-la-Neuve 1977, p. 483

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