Tribal Art

Rare Luba statue of imposing size, standing on spread, semi-flexed legs. So-called "ear-shaped" scarifications, "tactile mnemonic code", cover the bust, enhancing the curves. This type of figure was also used in the context of fertility rituals: young women lacking breast milk came to touch the chest of the statue in the hope of breastfeeding more abundantly. These mothers then spoke audibly to the ancestor indicating that their grandchildren lacked milk. Dark satin patina.
The Luba (Baluba in Chiluba) are a people of Central Africa. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu river, thus the name (Baluba, which means “the Lubas”). The chiefdoms cover a small territory without any real border which includes at most three villages. The Luba of Kasai were subjected to the stylistic influences of the groups with which they were mixed, among which the Tschokwe, of which they adopted, for certain of their statues, the hands or the disproportionate feet. The Luba have two types of figures: the mikisi mihasi , embodying deceased parents or spirits, and the mikisi mihake , sculptures dedicated to containing a magic charge, in the head or abdomen, in order to solve a problem.
( Luba , Roberts, 5 Continents; "Treasures of Africa" ed. of the Museum of Tervuren).