Staff of office "kibango" · D. R. Congo, Luba · ID: 3044195

Name: Staff of office "kibango"
SKU: 3044195
Availability: Discontinued

not available anymore

Provenance

Didier Claes, Brussels, Belgium

Size

H: 138,5 cm

H: 54.5 inch

Description

wood, copper sheet, base

Staffs of office “kibango” were both prestige items and receptacles for sacral power.

Sanctified by ritual specialists, fortified with metal and medicine, they took on supernatural qualities and were said to have healing power. The depiction of duiker horns at the headdress may refer to the staffs curative capacities, since Luba doctors used small antelope horns to hold medicine.

Furthermore the staffs function as mnemonic text, their forms and designs constituting sculpted narratives. They encode information about lineage history, which may be read as texts.

The object Staff of office “kibango” with the object ID 3044195 was last part of the auction 89th Tribal Art Auction at July 7, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 410.

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