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LE MBUMBA RETROUVÉ 145 bie—I fi nally found a profi le photograph that brought my investigation to a defi nitive conclusion: Raponda-Walker’s mbumba and the Belgian fi gure were indeed one and the same. A V-shaped mark on the cylindrical neck, a notch near the latter’s top and another at the base of the neck were incontrovertible indi- FIG. 6 (left): Photo showing the Raponda-Walker mbumba taken while it was in the collection of the Musée de l’Homme, as demonstrated by the inventory number (34-150-50). Archives of the Musée du Quai Branly- Jacques Chirac (inv. 71.1934.150.50). FIG. 7 (right): Profi le view of the rediscovered mbumba shown in fi g. 5. © Hughes Dubois, reproduced by permission of Galerie Bernard Dulon. ces of its identity. Undoubtedly in an effort to remove the inventory number at some point in the past, the statue’s lower limbs had been amputated and its raffi a skirt discarded. Although diminished by these actions, this work, which is of particular historical importance in France because of its donor, will now rejoin the collection of the Musée du Quai Branly, where it should have been all along. NOTE 1. André Raponda-Walker and Roger Sillans, Rites et croyances des peuples du Gabon, Paris: Présence africaine, 1961, p. 68. The drawing of the statue is p. 69. It should be noted that the base is carved with two stylized feet.


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