Figure gardienne de reliquaire "boho-na-bwete" ou "mbulu-ngulu"
Lore Kegel, Hamburg, Germany
Boris Kegel-Konietzko, Hamburg, Germany
Kegel-Konietzko & Dorn, Hamburg, Germany
Description
wood, metal, rest., inscribed on the back “Kot 2”
In an article published in a gentleman’s magazine in 1955, this reliquary guardian figure can be seen in several photographs showing it hanging on a wall in Lore Kegel’s living quarters.
A stylistically comparable guardian figure from the Ndassa region (ex Heinrich Umlauff) published in LaGamma, 2007, p. 256, fig. 80.
Kota reliquary guardian figures, such as this one, are unique among African sculptural forms in their combination of wood and hammered metal.
As with the Fang, ancestor worship (“bwete” cult) plays an important role among the Kota. It finds expression in these anthropomorphic metal-decorated figures called “boho-na-bwete” in the north and “mbulu-ngulu” in the south.
The Kota believed that relics of important men and women possessed great power and could grant protection to descendants and bring good luck. Therefore, skulls and bones were kept together with magical substances in woven baskets (“musuku mwangudu” or “usuwu ngulu”).
Occasionally, the relics were publicly displayed with the aim of mobilizing the power of the ancestors, such as when an important event took place in the community (a hunt, a great collective fishing expedition, etc.).
Sometimes the figures were removed from shrines and used during annual “bwete” festivals. When not in use, the figures and baskets of ancestor relics are usually kept in a small chamber at the back of the chief’s residence.
Beginning in the 1870s, Kota reliquary figures were among the earliest African sculptures to be acquired by European naturalists and explorers—among them Paul Du Chaillu, Alfred Marche, Oscar Lenz, and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza. Beginning in the early 20th century, avant-garde artists—including Europeans such as Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Paul Klee, Americans such as Alfred Stieglitz, and Africans such as Ernest Mancoba—widely collected and drew inspiration from Kota art.