Cloche "dibu" ·  R. D. Congo, Bakongo · ID: 3044276

Description

wood, plant fibre, base

Simple wooden bells are attached to the necks of hunting dogs. The large, usually decorated “dibu” specimens are a symbol of the healer “nganga”.

The hunter follows the sound of the dog’s bell into the forest to catch the animals. Similarly the “nganga” uses a bell when he symbolically enters the spiritual world called “the forest of the ancestors” to seek the spirit or ancestor that is causing his client’s problems.

Littérature comparée

Fagg, William, African Tribal Images, Cleveland 1968, ill. 226 Gansemans, Jos, Musical Instruments, Tervuren 2009, p. 144