Standing female figure "hamba" · Angola, Chokwe · ID: 3042991
sold
EUR 400
Provenance
Peter Loebarth, Hameln, Germany (collected in the 1980s)Fred Jahn, Munich, Germany (1999)
Size
H: 23,3 cm
H: 9.2 inch
Description
wood, softly luminous blackish brown patina, necklace from indigo blue glass rings, slightly dam., abrasion of paint, cracks, base.
The village chief keeps “mahamba” that safeguard the community in an enclosure behind his residence. The “mahamba” spirits receive prayers and offerings to ensure their protection or to soothe them.
Often a carved figure, also called “hamba”, is created as a home for the spirit from which the patient has been freed.
Comparing literature
Petridis, Constantine, Art and Power in the Central African Savanna, Brussels 2008, p. 96 ff.