101
new intensive research in the Congo will again
one day be possible in order to bring fresh data
to light remains to be seen, but I hope that my
new book will at least incite others to pick up
the threads and fi ll in the blanks.
Among the contributions of Luluwa: Central
African Art between Heaven and Earth is
its selection of some 160 works from public
and private collections around the world. Together
these illustrate the arresting diversity of
sculpture that has been designated as Luluwa.
However, despite the exhaustive ambition of
this project, the number of fi gures, masks, and
decorative art objects illustrated in the book,
though not insignifi cant, merely represents a
choice of what has been preserved and, at best,
a sampling of what likely was produced but did
not survive. Aside from my emphasis on sculpture
in wood, which is the medium most readily
available in museums and collections in Europe
and the United States, I have also elected to focus
on what art scholars, collectors, and dealers
have come to recognize as the “classical style” of
Luluwa fi gurative art. However, the distinction
between classical and non-classical quickly fades
in the borderland areas of Luluwaland, where
the boundaries between the arts of the Luluwa
and those of neighboring groups are dynamic
and blurred. With regard to masks, it must be
acknowledged that some of the best-known ex-
FIG. 3 (left):
Dyamba dance in Mukenge.
From Hermann von Wissmann et al.,
Im Innern Afrikas: Die Erforschung
des Kassaï während der Jahre 1883,
1884 und 1885 (3rd ed.), Berlin:
Globus, 1891, facing p. 184.
Propagated by chief Kalamba-
Mukenge in the late nineteenth
century, a new religion centered on
the smoking of cannabis, or dyamba,
was originally meant to promote
peace, joy, and eternal life.
FIG. 4 (facing page, right):
Power object.
Possibly Luluwa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Animal horn, warthog tusk, metal,
earth. H: 20 cm.
Ex Fodor, Belgium; Joëlle Fiess,
Belgium.
Felix Collection, Belgium.
Photo: Courtesy Congo Basin Art
History Research Center, Brussels.
Natural containers such as animal
horns, monkey skulls, and snail shells
were among the most commonly
found forms of personal and portable
medicine-charged power objects,
or manga.
FIG. 5 (right):
Male fi gure, bwanga bwa
bukalenga or bwanga bwa
lufu: Kayembe Munene.
Probably Bakwa Ndoolo
subgroup, Luluwa,
Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
Wood (Quassia undulata), pigment.
H: 70 cm.
Field acquired by Tiarko Fourche,
1933–36.
RMCA, Tervuren, 1946,
inv. EO.0.0.43847.
Photo: Jean-Marc Vandyck. © Royal
Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren.
The title Kayembe Munene that
Fourche documented while collecting
this fi gure is a proper name meaning
“Great Kayembe,” but even though
such fi gures honor the memory of
the ancestors, they cannot be seen
as portraits.