LULUWA
FIG. 7a and b (left): Mother-and-child figure,
bwanga bwa Cibola.
Luluwa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Wood, pigment. H: 31 cm.
Field acquired by Karel Timmermans in the village of
Kabulwanda, 1959.
Ex Timmermans-Haems, Belgium; Sotheby’s, Paris, 5 December
2006.
Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière Collection, France.
Photo © Sotheby’s/Art Digital Studio.
The unusually well-preserved camwood-powdered surface gracing
this maternity figure is one of many features highlighting its
bwimpe, a concept denoting the ideal combination of physical
beauty and moral integrity.
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FIG. 8 (right): Half figure,
bwanga bwa Cibola.
Luluwa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Wood, pigment, copper tack.
H: 32.1 cm.
Ex Guillaume De Hondt, Brussels,
Belgium, by 1937; Helena
Rubinstein, USA and France;
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York,
21 April 1966; Frieda and Milton
Rosenthal, USA; Sotheby’s, New
York, 14 November 2008.
Malcolm Collection, USA.
Photo: © Jon Lam, Pauline Shapiro,
and Sotheby’s.
This half figure would have been
placed in a corner of the home of
a woman undergoing the Cibola
initiation cycle as a guardian, with
its pointed base stuck into a clay
pot or a basket filled with earth
and other ingredients. This piece
was included in Frans Olbrechts’
landmark Kongo-Kunst exhibition
in Antwerp in 1937.
the primary field research was conducted in the
mid to late twentieth century. This introductory
chapter also reveals certain methodological and
epistemological concerns that have impacted our
knowledge. The fact that church and state have
targeted much of the Luluwa people’s art related
to indigenous religious practices and beliefs
has not only led to the destruction of objects but
also provoked a strong reticence among members
of the community to discuss these matters
with outsiders.
Providing a sense of the historical and social
contexts in which the art may have thrived, the
chapter on ethnography describes how Luluwa