118 LUBA Explicit mother-and-child imagery is quite rare in the artistic corpus of the Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, even though most of the numerous Luba fi gural sculptures are female. That fact speaks to the great importance of women, who besides being known as mothers, are seen in Luba history, life, and thought as sacred ancestors, as “epicenters of power,” as protectors of sacred royalty, as advisors to kings, as emissaries to foreign chiefdoms, as spirit mediums or diviners, and much more.28 Women, too, are said to contain and protect the “secrets of life,” a critical Luba role parallel to that of Yoruba mothers a great distance away in Nigeria. Occasional Luba stools, more properly called royal thrones, feature maternity themes, reinforcing the central role of women in Luba kingship. One example, illustrated here (fi g. 18) has iconography that is unique: A diminutive adult-proportioned child stands on the mother’s thigh, holding and suckling her pointed left breast intently, with his head thrown back. Sculptured thrones with female caryatid fi gures are an effective expression of women upholding kingship—in this case literally. For important state occasions a leader would sit upon a living female royal, who served as a utilitarian support and also the actual and metaphorical seat of authority. Perhaps the female throne fi gure represents a founding ancestor or at least the woman who became the embodiment of a deceased king’s spirit after he died. As the most important emblems of sacred kingship, thrones are rarely seen in public. Rather, they are kept away from the royal compound, wrapped in white cloth, and protected in secret locations. Like many maternities discussed in this article, a Luba throne’s real purpose is layered and complex, and it is not accurately understood in its apparent primary function as a “seat,” that is, a support for a body.29 Its metaphoric dimensions are multiple: a locus of royal memory and authority, an embodiment of the king’s spirit, a tangible sign of spiritual ascendancy, and the site and instrument of the installation ritual, which is to say, an emblem of this critical process. The Luba word for “throne,” kipona, is a synonym for kitenta, FEATURE
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