wood, metal, glass beads, fabric,

This staff is crowned by a female figure depicted in the prime of her life, endowed with elaborate scarification and a gorgeous coiffure.

The figure shows formal and stylistic similarities with the crowning figure of a "kibango" staff from the holdings of the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde, Munich (cf. AHDRC 0031317). Both staffs can be attributed to one workshop or one master. The Munich staff was demonstrably acquired by Hugo Deininger in 1905. The date of origin of both staffs can thus be placed in the period before 1905.

"Kibango" are often crowned by female figures. They represent foundresses of certain royal lines or other historically documented female characters. In the case of one staff, Nooter was reported, that the crowning figure represents a wife of King Kasongo Niembo who was sent to secure the alliance of the ancestor of the present staff owner.

The pervasive representation of women on male officeholders emblems shows the important role of women in the political and religious history of the Luba.

The epic of Luba origins, in which Mbidi Kiluwe, the cultural hero who brought royal ideology to the Luba kingdom, presents a royal staff to his son Kalala Ilunga, serves as the inspiration for "kibango". It is said that the original staff has been passed down from generation to generation. Staffs as symbols indicative of authority are an idea widely held.

"Kibango" depict a certain narrative specific to the owner’s family history. For this reason, each "kibango" is unique. Luba staffs may belong to a greater range of people—territorial chiefs, titleholders, "mbudye" members and diviners.

High-level officeholders who carry staffs use them at public proceedings to both honour their ancestors and guide their descendants, teaching them about their relationship to the Luba kingship. "Kibango" staffs are also used during the investiture of a new territory's king—his sister or wife plants the staff in the ground to the right side of the king. He then grasps the staff after which he swears his oath of office. In addition, "kibango" staffs were said to be carried into battle and "stuck in the ground among the slain enemy as signs of bloody victory."
H: 133 cm, H: 52,4 inch

Provenance:
Karl-Ferdinand Schädler, Munich, Germany

Lit.: Roberts, Mary Nooter, Memory, Luba Art and the Making of History, New York 1996, p. 169
Nooter Roberts, Mary, Luba, Milan 2007, p. 38 f.
Continent: Africa

See description