Extrémité figurative d´une canne "mbweci", 19e siècle
Philip Budrose (1920-2000), Marblehead, USA
Renaud Riley, Brussels, Belgium
Private Collection, London, Great Britain
James Stephenson, New York, USA
Description
wood, brass nails, animal hair, glass beads, base
Beautifully crafted figure, which interestingly has retained its magical
charge. At the back of the head there is a small piece of animal skin
with fur (lion), which is attached using plant fibers and mass.
Among the Chokwe carved staffs with figurative finials were the prerogative of chiefs. Known as “mbweci” (or “mukombo”), a chief’s staff was much more than a walking stick; it communicated his identity, status, and power through nuanced messages conveyed in its iconography.
The carved female figure featured at the finial of this chief’s staff represents a “hamba”, or the spirit of a lineage ancestor whose help the chief seeks for the welfare of the clan. Her depiction serves as a visual and tactile reminder that she continues to protect her descendants from the afterlife as she once did while alive.
A chief communicated his royal lineage by depicting particular female ancestors on his staff. In the royal court and beyond, this link with an ancestral past legitimizes and protects the chief’s claim to political authority. Furthermore, the maternal ancestor symbolizes fertility, maternity, progeny, and, above all, the continuation of the lineage — a primary concern of the chief and his clan.
Littérature comparée
Jordán, Manuel (ed.), Chokwe!, München, London, New York 1998, ill. 133 Roberts, Allen F., Staffs of Life, Iowa 1994Publications
Riley, Renaud, "A deux pas des Tshokwe", Paris / Brussels: Parcours des Mondes 2014 (Classic Primitives-Renaud Riley)AHDRC: 0199600