Tribal Art

Anthropomorphic figure of an ancestor, bust, presenting closed eyes with rounded eyelids, thick lips, a large tri-lobed hairstyle extending down the back. A white clay-based patina, called mpemba, covers the whole, like the okuyi masks. This same makeup also covers the dancers during the different rites and ceremonies. This type of punu and lumbu sculpture was intended for magical use, or to sit on a reliquary package in which the object was inserted.
Desiccation cracks and abrasions.
The Punu settled in southwest Gabon and the Congo following conflicts with their Fang neighbors. Punu art objects, imprinted with the Kongo world, are linked to funerary rituals, to the initiation rites of the mukudji society but also to specific magical rites during which the dancers adorned with accoutrements exhibit them. These rites of justice should make it possible to discover sorcerers.