Description

Title: Rare LEGA Ngeze Figure statue sculpture Congo African Tribal Art 1185

Description: CONGO DRC
LEGA Figure
Ngeze
Very dynamic sculpture, beautiful stylization
A piece with a similar architecture is well known, photographed in situ and published in LEGA CULTURE, 1973, plates 27 and 30
Its route thereafter: Galerie Khepri (Amsterdam), Irwin and Marcia Hersay, (New York), and Sotheby's, (New York, Tribal Art 20/05/87 Lot160)
it is finally published in Ethique et Beauté, Biebuyck, 2002 page 127
with the following note:
Represents Ngeze.
"I will go and ask for food at Ngeze (small rodent), (but) I will not eat any ripe bananas (because Ngeze will have eaten everything)"
Ngeze personifies an individual who wants to achieve a higher initiation but fails in his preparations. He's a salugi, a sloth. He must first cultivate fields and organize large-scale hunts in order to obtain enough food for all the guests before to think about the initiation.
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Another similar statuette is kept at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington
under the inventory number 73-7-325
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The figures used in the cult of the Bwami are generically called Iginga
Collective, sacred properties, they are kept in secret, generally in closed wicker baskets. Their use is reserved at passages to the upper (Yananio) and supreme (Kindi) levels
The figure is inseparable from the aphorism associated with it
The Bwami is a hierarchical association by ranks which organizes the social structure and ensures the stability of the Lega community
Each change of level is accompagned with initiation rites where people talk, sing, dance, mime and exhibit. A multitude of aphorisms are used in stories and songs
The aim is to formulate and to interpret in multiple symbolic ways principles, moral and philosophical values and rules of bwami, to each and inculcate them, and to bestow upon the initiates the paraphernalia pertinent to their grade level together with their symbolic references, and to convey the resulting power, prestige and privileges. (Biebuyk, Sculptures don not speak 2010)
The Lega are a Bantu forest people of Central Africa, established in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in the provinces of South Kivu and Maniema.
Characteristics:
TYPE OF OBJECT: Figure, statue, figurine.
ETHNICAL GROUP: Lega – Balega - Warega.
ORIGINE: Democratic Republic of Congo.
(ex Belgian Congo, ex Zaïre).
Sud Kivu and Maniema provinces
MATERIAL: Wood, cord, vegetable shell
DIMENSIONS: About 11 1/4 inches high.
12 " with the base
CONDITION: Medium - Bad

Reserve: $425.00

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Rare LEGA Ngeze Figure statue sculpture Congo African Tribal Art 1185

10404

4.5

53454

Primitive Passions: Exclusive Tribal Art Sale

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