FEATURE shapeless beings—male youths taken from their mothers—when they fi rst enter her compound as novices. She redelivers them later as fully formed human beings, having nourished them “with the milk of knowledge” (fi g. 1). 19 The same author speaks of a conventionalized sculpture of this deity and its “thin, larva-like creature,” the unformed novice, a shapeless being, who is suckling.20 A later ceremony symbolizes a “weaning” from the Mother.21 During the long initiation cycle, young men in training will say they are “at our mother’s work.” EASTERN PENDE ROOF FINIALS The commanding presence of a large motherand 116 child carving, kishikishi, atop the ritual houses, kibulu (fi g. 14), of important “great chiefs” among the matrilineal Eastern Pende peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is a mid-twentieth-century phenomenon.22 A fi ne weathered fi gure in this tradition (fi g. 15) might lead us to think this is an ancient practice, but Strother’s fi eldwork suggests otherwise, reminding that change is more or less constant in African ritual, art, and daily life.23 Rooftop maternity fi gures holding weapons came to be vital symbolically in announcing a chief’s sacred domain and his training in sorcery, skills enabling him to lead and protect his people. The axe-wielding female guards the secrets of chiefl y power contained in this structure, which also serves as the chief’s residence (fi g. 17). The house’s “stomach” is its innermost sanctum beneath the center pole, which supports the maternal roof fi gure. All seeds and grains grown locally are ritually deposited there, and protective medicines are added. A prayer intoned during this rite, secretly in the early morning darkness, shows the house and its contents to be a microcosm of the Pende world. This is the chief’s invocation: You are the center pole of the house, you are the village with its people, fi elds, and forest. We have given you all the seeds for cultivation so that you may grip the earth as the seeds roots grip the earth over there. All seeds grow, may you grow as the seeds grow, so that the women may give birth, so that there may be lots of palm wine, so that the hunters may kill their prey with their guns.24 The axe-wielding rooftop maternity is the public declaration of these ideas, visible and elevated. The fi gure recalls a woman-chief, fi rst wife of the great chief, emphasizing his nurturing role. Under ancestral sanctions, she protects Pende life within the chief’s realm. Her weapon is a warning to anyone of evil intent. As fi rst wife, she has ritual duties regarding agriculture and is a political force. She dances with an axe at the chief’s investiture, then hands it to him to behead a dog in one stroke. Its blood and that of a goat killed by his fi rst minister is collected in a cup, which is passed to all present. Her child is the continuation of her matrilineal line and reminds the people of the death of a sister and thus the loss of a lineage.25 The Pende sculptor Kaseya Tambwe Makumbi is noted for his fi nial sculptures in a more naturalistic style than most Pende works. He was partly infl uenced by Madonna and Child images in missionary hands during his productive years, the 1940s and 1950s, when rooftop maternities became popular. Pende symbolism parallels that of Ala in mbari houses to some extent, although the Igbo microcosm is celebrated publicly in mbari, open, visible to all. The Pende house, also decorated with added images, is strictly off limits to all but a few, with a hierarchy of palisade fences, courts, or vestibules and sometimes guardian sculptures impeding access to sacred items within. The outer room houses public chieftaincy insignia, such as weapons and regalia, while the inner room hides three powerful chiefl y masks. Here the notion of microcosm is more veiled. Still, several cosmic metaphors attach to the Pende structure. It is called a “house of the dead,” a foyer to the ancestral otherworld, “the heart of the village,” a granary, and a corral where ancestors send animals as food.26 Like mbari houses, it is a deliberately impermanent structure that may not be repaired. “The kibulu is also an aesthetic object testifying to the wealth, rank, and personal tastes of a named individual.”27 FIG. 14 (above): The kibulu of Pende Chief Komba-Kebeto. Photograph by Leon de Sousberghe, 1955. Eliot Elisofon Archive, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution. FIG. 15 (near right, top): Mother and child. Eastern Pende, DR Congo. Wood. H: 81.3 cm. Private collection. Photo: Jerry L. Thompson. FIG. 16 (near right, bottom): Maternity roof fi nial for a chief’s house. Eastern Pende, DR Congo. Wood, metal, pigment. H: c. 125 cm. Africarium Collection. Photo: Austin Kennedy. FIG. 17 (far right): Maternity roof fi nial for a chief’s house, carved by Kaseya Tambwe. Eastern Pende, DR Congo. Wood. H: 153 cm. Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, inv. EO 1950.25.1.
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