Standing male figure · D. R. Congo, Basikasingo · ID: 3033458
not available anymore
Provenance
Jacques van Praet, Belgium (before 1950)Size
H: 49,5 cm
H: 19.5 inch
Description
wood, dark brown patina, tribe-typical facial features with beard, min. dam., minor missing parts, cracks, slight traces of abrasion;
the Basikasingo have rites for ancestors, who have the power to cause disease and misfortune. If a mischief happened, people tried to experience the wishes of the ancestors by interpreting dreams and by soothsaying. They were kept in small shrines under the authority and guardianship of a petty chief, village headman or dominant lineage elder. Sometimes such figures were individually identified ancestors, called “bashumbu”.
Comparing literature
Biebuyck, Daniel P., Statuary from the pre-Bembe hunters, Tervuren 1981, p. 42, ill. 33