FEATURE The Concave and the Convex 102 Of all the objects in our daily lives, the spoon is among the most generous. This simple utensil has been a faithful companion in the most vulnerable moments of our lives. It is an airplane with liquid in it that amuses and fascinates a baby, and it sustains the sick and the weak in need of nourishment, allowing them to be easily fed. The spoon is associated with modesty because the dishes that necessitate its use are often so simple. What could be more humble than soup? It is also a reliable measuring instrument, used to determine correct doses and quantities. These praises of the spoon also apply to its larger cousin, the ladle, a symbol of abundance thanks to its greater size and its function of sharing by dividing a large portion in a tureen or cooking vessel into smaller ones for plates and bowls. The spoon is less closely related to knives and forks than the latter are to each other. The knife, which is older than the spoon, is more versatile. It is both a weapon and a tool that cuts both the living and the inert. While unquestionably useful, it has a more aggressive nature than the peaceful spoon. The fork, which is less widely used throughout the world than the spoon, shares the aggressive quality of the knife. A “miniature derivative” of the agricultural pitchfork, it is also related to the trident and forked military weapons. As such, the fork is the polar opposite of the spoon, which Michel Tournier has pointed out (2004: 77–78). But let us return to the universal spoon. The collection of spoons and ladles at the Musée Royal d’Afrique Centrale in Tervuren, Belgium (MRAC), is unquestionably among the most important in the world as far as examples from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are concerned, since it includes more than 1,000 of them. On many occasions, I have opened the drawers that hold these objects and been struck breathless by the beauty of so many of them, By Julien Volper and all the more so because some of them were probably produced by cultures that are normally thought of as being weak in the sculptural arts. Stating this definitively is difficult, however, because of the absence of any in-depth study devoted to them to solidify their attribution and context. Clearly it was time to begin such a project. Everything, or nearly everything, needed to be done. To begin with, and as a first step toward decipherment, the meticulous task of studying each piece in the MRAC collection one at a time was necessary. This resulted in a better understanding of the objects, as well as a number of “little research pleasures,” notably in connection with stylistic attributions and iconographic influences. The two examples that follow will hopefully illustrate this. The Ababua Attribution and the Six-Pointed Star The object in figure 1 is an ivory spoon whose appearance resembles that of examples commonly attributed to the Ababua (or Boa). While at first glance this attribution may appear to have a sound scientific basis, the “Boa” designation actually rests on very limited information. In truth, the designation has become credible only because it has been so constantly repeated and accepted throughout the field of African art. The Ababua attribution of Tervuren’s examples in particular relates to a connection between poorly documented ivory spoons and ethnographic information published by A. de Calonne-Beaufaict (1909, pp. 330–331). This author was one of the few to mention the large spatulate spoons, epapwa, of the Ababua, although he characterizes them as sculptural objects. Because of this, it was easy to attribute delicately crafted ivory spoons to the same ethnic group, even though epapwa are actually made of wood and their large size is not at all comparable to smaller ivory spoons. Side view of fig. 25. Ivory Spoons of the Northeastern Congo
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