LULUWA
105
culture and art are indebted to the Luba to the
east and the Tshokwe to the west and south.
This chapter also recognizes that the recently
introduced ethnonym Luluwa, which replaces
earlier denominations such as Bashilange
and Bapemba, in fact refers to a wide diversity
of subgroups that contribute to the diversity
in the arts. Despite roots situated in the Luba
region, Luluwa culture was largely colored by
its relationship with the Tshokwe people, who,
along with other traders, communicated with
and settled among the Luluwa and influenced its
spiritual and material culture, including its art.
This ethnographic chapter also sheds light on
the infamous chief Kalamba-Mukenge, whose
expanded power earned him a special status.
Kalamba-Mukenge and his sister Meeta-Sangula
are remembered for their propagation of a
new religion that centered on the smoking of dyamba,
or cannabis (Cannabis sativa). In artistic
terms, this dyamba religion is believed to have
triggered an iconoclastic movement that entailed
the destruction of some types of traditional art
that the newly established belief sought to ban
and replace (fig. 3).
The next chapter, focusing on Luluwa figure
sculpture, is comprised of two parts: a survey
of the functional categories in which the various
figure types can be organized and a review
of different styles and substyles. This extensive
chapter is illustrated with a large number of
works from both public and private collections
around the world, many of which have never before
been published. In general, Luluwa figure
sculpture belongs to a broad category known
as bwanga (plural manga) in the local language.
Like its equivalent nkishi and its many phonetic
variants, bwanga is shared among various Congolese
peoples for what the current literature
denotes as “power objects,” once pejoratively
labeled as “fetishes.” Broadly speaking, such
manga are spirit-invested objects that function
as intermediaries between the human and spirit
worlds. Allowing them to intervene in the lives of
the people who owned or used them, the works’
metaphysical powers were prompted by the application
or insertion of ingredients or medicines
of various kinds, locally called bishimba.
It is the communicating or mediating role
of Luluwa art that inspired the subtitle of my
FIGS. 9a and b (left):
Male figure, bwanga bwa
bwimpe.
Luluwa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Wood, pigment. H: 22.8 cm.
Ex Josef Herman, United Kingdom.
Nicole and John Dintenfass
Collection, USA.
Photos © Vincent Girier Dufournier,
Paris.
The name bwimpe associated with
this object as well as with its related
cult should be understood in its
broad cultural meaning of “moral
beauty,” a combination of external
beauty and internal goodness.
FIG. 10 (right):
Female figure, bwanga bwa
bwimpe.
Luluwa, Democratic
Republic of the Congo.
Wood, pigment. H: 19 cm.
Ex Serge Brignoni, Switzerland;
Patrik Fröhlich, Zurich, Switzerland;
private collection, Belgium; Jacques
Germain, Montreal, Canada.
Private collection.
Photo courtesy Galerie Jacques
Germain, Montreal; © Hughes
Dubois, Brussels/Paris.
The majority of bwimpe figures are
of smaller size and of female gender,
but some large-scale male examples
have been field documented and
acquired.