Tribal Art

Kota African art.
Unusual by its face in very marked relief, this reliquary guardian is indeed typical of the Kota style of the Sébé valley, a tributary of the right bank of the Ogooué, in the east of Gabon . Rows of embossed dotted lines underline the shells enhanced with a thick coppery rib. The latter borders the contours of the "death's head", also dividing the forehead. The base is narrow and relatively compact. The eyes are made of bone, the eyelid metallic, and the mouth absent. Copper wires are wound around the base, which is surrounded by a ring. The back of the sculpture depicts the headdress of a dignitary. This prestigious sculpture symbolizes the link between the world of the living and that of the dead. This type of effigy had the function of keeping the mortuary relics of ancestors of high lineage, fragments of bones placed for this purpose in baskets made of wickerwork or bark.