Figure d'une cheffe de tribu ·  R. D. Congo / Angola, Tchokwé · ID: 3048684

Description

wood, black colour, pokerwork, missing part, rep., base

Female figures were often part of a male-female couple.

It has been suggested that this kind of paired statue represents a couple of unspecified ancestors or chiefs, the primordial ancestors of the creation of the world, or the mythical ancestors of the Chokwe, “Chibinda Ilunga” and “Lweji”. “Lweji” was the first Lunda female chief and the wife of the cultural hero “Chibinda Ilunga”.

This figure is female, but still wears a chin beard (probably as a sign of dignity and authority) and the typical chiefly headdress.

Littérature comparée

Jordán, Manuel (ed.), Chokwe!, München, London, New York 1998, ill. 9

Publications

AHDRC: 0000171