Tribal Art

This type of seat, a symbol of power that can here serve as a table or pedestal table, was frequently used as a pedestal for mankishi (sing. nkishi) fetishes. A female subject wearing a Kifwebe mask supports the circular tray. These seats were sometimes charged with a bishimba at the level of the head, the umbilicus or in the base. Brown patina nuanced with ocher, small accidents.
In the south-west of the Congo, and in Angola and Zambia, each chief had a seat with a female caryatid, an image of fecundity and fertility and of matrilineal descent. The Songye came from the Shaba region in the DRC and settled between the Lualaba River and the Sankuru River in the middle of savannah and forests. They are governed by the yakitenge and by local chiefs. Lit. : "The Sensible and the Force" ed. Royal Museum for Central Africa; "Seats of Black Africa" ed. 5Continents.