Figure gardienne de reliquaire "mbulu-ngulu"

Description

wood, metal, base

The inserterd figurative sculptures were often referred to in literature as “reliquary guardian figures” because they protect the precious contents. Their function, however, is more complex. In communal rites and ritual performances, the figures served as effective agents of ancestral power. It is believed that these shrines allow the living to communicate with ancestors in the spirit realm through offerings made to the “bwete” shrines.

The chief rituals associated with the ancestors, officiated by initiate, consisted on the one hand in offering food and anounting the skulls with sacred red ointment (“siya”). On the other, and occasionally, in displaying the relics to the public with the aim of mobilizing the power of the ancestors when there was an important event in the community (a hunt, a great collective fishing expedition, an epidemic, moving the village, fraught discussions, etc.). Reliquary ensembles also played an esssential role in initiation rituals that pertained to the transfer of family history and genealogy.

Of course, possessing relics and reliquary figures were recognized signs of social and political power for the clan chiefs concerned. It could be said that ancestor worship among the northern and southern Kota alike lay at the very heart of social and religious life in the villages.