Tribal Art

African sculpture associated with the mythical ancestor Oso of the Kouyou, a neighboring group of the Punu in the Republic of Congo. The face and body bear many scarified patterns, and the mouth reveals sharp teeth. The subject wearing a totemic animal is represented sitting on a janiform mask.
Polychrome matte patina. Desication erosions and cracks.
Formerly, the Kouyou were divided into two totemic clans: in the West that of the panther, and in the East that of the snake. A secret men's association, Ottoté, played an important political role in the appointment of chiefs. The initiation of young people ended with the revelation of the serpent god Ebongo represented in the form of a head. The Kibe-kibe or Kebekebe dances, which accompanied the ceremony, reactivated the successive stages of creation. The panther clan had a drum as their emblem. For its part, that of the snake had sculpted heads, painted in bright colors, on sticks that the manipulator, concealed under a long robe, held with his hands stretched above his head.
"African art" Mazenod