Maternité "phemba" · D. R. Congo, Yombe · ID: 3032797
Description
light-weighted wood, reddish brown patina, black paint in some areas (original paint), the baby suckling while she caringly holds its head, close to nature, beautiful modelled forceful facial features, slightly dam., minor missing parts, crack in the base;
used in connection with a women’s fertility cult, said to have been founded by a famous midwife. There is also a reason to connect them with the Lemba cult. In Congo iconology, red is an appropriate colour for transitional conditions such as birth and death. It has been suggested that some of the infants in this maternities are in fact dead, on the other hand, some “phemba”, like the present one, show the baby suckling. The maternity scene represents the mythical mother, controller of fecundity. This commemorative statue would have been used to honour the maternal spirit and the prosperity she brings in both funerary and fertility cults. It would also have been employed to honor a woman of importance, whose influence still determined matters of descendance.
Comparing literature
Art of the Congo, Minneapolis 1967, ill. 15 Baeke, Viviane (ed.), Treasures from the Africa-Museum Tervuren, Tervuren 1995, p. 289 f.