Tribal Art

This female African figure of ancestor whose pose, hands on the chest, would evoke fertility, is also associated with royal secrets. This attitude indicates that the secrets of royalty, bizila , belong to women through their role as political and spiritual intermediaries. She is pictured wearing a prolonged tiara of a hull and a thick braid behind a forehead largely cleared by the traditional shaving. The so-called "en epi" , "tactile mnemoniccode" , cover the abdomen, the hollow of the kidneys and the lower abdomen, highlighting the volumes and the protruding umbilical. The speckled patina is powdery. The heavily altered base was fixed on a pedestal.
The Luba (Baluba in Chiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is the Katanga, specifically the region of the Lubu River, so the name (Baluba, which means \