Three figurative wall panels · D. R. Congo, Kwango, Nkanu · ID: 3052606
By inheritance to family
Arte Primitivo, New York, USA, 18 September 2019, lot 687
Description
wood, pigment (red, black, and white), all three panels are mounted on bases and fitted with handles on the reverse
a) three-part panel with two carved-on figures, handwritten inventory no. “305” (crossed out) and “507”, h: 24.5 cm, w: 28 cm;
b) two-part panel with one carved-on and one separately made figure, inventory no. “305” (crossed out) and “508”, h: 28.5 cm, w: 24 cm;
c) small panel with two separately made figures, handwritten inventory no. “305”, h: 18.5 cm, w: 26 cm; the arms of all figures are mostly carved separately and fixed with nails
These panels are associated with the “nkanda” initiation society, which oversees the transition of boys into manhood.
The figurative wooden panels were mounted on the interior walls of a “kikaku”, a three-sided, roofed shelter, and were displayed toward the end of the “nkanda” rites.
The panels are intended as metaphorical representations of rebirth, sexual maturity, fertility, death, the spirit world, and communal values—metaphors that can only be fully understood by initiated men.
The purpose of displaying the panels was to remind the initiates of the lessons they had learned during their time of initiation.
(Adenike Cosgrove, 2021)
Comparing literature
Bourgeois, Arthur P., Art of the Yaka and Suku, Paris 1984, p. 256, ill. 238
Publications
AHDRC: 0165226