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the impact of the religious movement centered
around the narcotic in the late nineteenth century
seems to have been grossly exaggerated in
the literature.
Whether used for cannabis or tobacco, luxury
pipes with a human-shaped decoration in typical
Luluwa style, like other genres of decorative
art, served to indicate the status and wealth
of their owner (fig. 19). Similar references to
leadership and rank most probably apply to the
limited number of drums, caryatid stools, and
headrests, as well as to staffs and adzes that have
been attributed to the Luluwa. Figurative adzes
with an iron blade projecting from the mouth of
a human head carved atop a wooden handle are
of a type that is widespread in southern Congo.
Never used as a tool to cut wood, these emblems
of power specific to chiefs and other high-ranking
individuals were either hung over the shoulder
or held in the hand like a dance wand during
performances (fig. 18). The relative scarcity of
Luluwa decorative arts in Western collections
is surprising but may result from the fact that
prestige objects were imported from neighboring
cultures such as the Kuba, Tshokwe, and Luba
Katanga rather than made locally.
Masks, which are the subject of my book’s
chapter 4, are more rarely found in Western collections
than figures and only rarely appear in the
art market (figs. 21 and 22). Revealing Tshokwe
influence in both form and context, they are stylistically
quite diverse. While only some show
affinities with what we generally consider the
typical Luluwa figure style, other examples are
seemingly unique sculptural creations whose attribution
to Luluwa artists cannot be sustained
by primary data. Luluwa masks were primarily
used in the context of the boys’ puberty rituals
but also appeared on the occasion of the investiture
of a local chief and at his funeral. In more
recent decades, they were most often danced for
the entertainment of both local audiences and
the occasional visitor, myself included.
One of the most unusual masks of Luluwa attribution,
which is remarkably similar in style
to some so-called classical Luluwa figural sculptures,
is the example formerly owned by New
York collector Werner Muensterberger that sold
for a record price for Luluwa art at the 11 May
2012 Sotheby’s auction in New York (fig. 21).
Some mask styles appear to be limited to subgroups
and others even more specifically to a
particular workshop or a single artist. Thanks
to Maesen’s field research, we know of masks
in collections in Europe and the United States
that were carved by Ntumba Tshasuma of the
Bakwa Kasaanzu subgroup, and others made by
two sculptors of the Bakwa Ndoolo subgroup,
Mundilaayi Mushipu and Jean Mandu, whose
works cannot easily be distinguished from
one another (figs. 23 and 24). The non-wooden
mask construction I witnessed in action in
1994 and 1996 among the Bashila Kasanga subgroup
in the village of Kapinga-Kamba is of a
little-known Tshokwe-like type of which similar
examples have been documented in the field
since the 1930s (fig. 20).
In the conclusion to Luluwa: Central African
Art between Heaven and Earth, using terminology
introduced into African art studies by
Malcolm McLeod in the late 1970s, I first revisit
my earlier hypotheses about the evolution
of a schematic style of “art process” toward a
naturalistic style of art, exemplary of McLeod’s
theory. In my previous analysis, I had argued
that this evolution in the arts mirrored a parallel
shift in the political and economic spheres
in the late nineteenth century resulting from the
FIG. 17 (facing page, left):
Mortar with pestle.
Probably Bakwa Mushilu
subgroup, Luluwa,
Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
Wood, pigment, cord. H: 14.5 cm.
Ex Amalie and Carl Kjersmeier,
Denmark.
Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen, gift of
Carl Kjersmeier, 1968, inv. G 8316.
Photo: John Lee, © Nationalmuseet,
Copenhagen.
Finely carved in the classical Bakwa
Mushilu style, this caryatid mortar for
tobacco or cannabis shows a figure in
the typical knee-to-elbow crouching
position holding its hands to its
cheeks. The meaning of this stance has
not yet been satisfactorily elucidated.
FIG. 18 (left): Adze.
Luluwa or Luba-Kasai,
Democratic Republic of the
Congo.
Wood, pigment, beads, metal.
H: 42 cm.
Ex Annie and Jean-Pierre Jernander,
Brussels, Belgium; Barbara and Joseph
Goldenberg, USA.
Fowler Museum at UCLA, gift of
Barbara and Joseph Goldenberg, 2010,
inv. X2010.16.61.
Photo: Don Cole, © Fowler Museum
at UCLA.
The style of this prestige or parade
adze, which would typically be worn
hung over its owner’s shoulder,
relates to an example acquired by
Leo Frobenius in the Congo in 1906
and attributed to the Kanyok, but it
most likely was carved by an artist of
the Bakwa Kalonji subgroup of the
Luba-Kasai.
FIG. 19 (above): Pipe.
Luluwa, Democratic Republic
of the Congo.
Wood, pigment, metal. L: 47.5 cm.
Ex Henri Pareyn, Antwerp, Belgium.
MAS | Museum aan de Stroom,
Antwerp, 1920, inv. AE.0433.1–2.
Photo: Bart Huysmans and Michel
Wuyts, © MAS | Museum aan de
Stroom, Antwerp.
The meaning of the peculiar feature of
the carved head and hand that grace
this unusual pipe remains unknown.
A few other examples with the same
iconography and attributed to the
Luluwa and their closely related Luntu
neighbors are held in public and
private collections around the world.
LULUWA