#baluba

The Congo Basin is in located in what is known as Central Africa, in the region west equatorial Africa. Before colonialization and still till this day scarification was practiced. The Congo holds some of the worlds most complex scarification methods and designs. The Body modification process is usually just talked of as a way to show ones beauty and to eroticize. However it also had to with ones place in society, it dealt with memory. It showed social process how people navigation through their community, their affliction. The marks indicated social rank , social status, or martial status. Marks showed if a person with a womb have given child birth. The marks could also be an indicator of a membership in a male or female secret initiatory society. If a person refused to participate in this process of marking, their life would face difficulties and it would be hard for them to participate in social life.

Source for text : The Etribal

1 - Central Africa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lega peoples, ca. early to mid-20th century CE.

2 - Lega woman with facial scarification and elaborate hairstyle, Kabila village, Congo (Democratic Republic), by Eliot Elisofon August 18, 1959 to December 20, 1959.

3 - Old mask - Metal, Wood - Ngbandi, Ngbaka - Democratic Republic of Congo Early / Mid 20th Century

4 - Man of M’Bouaka in Province de l'Equateur. Parmi les M'Bouaka by Casimir Zagourski 1924-1941.

5 - Democratic Republic of the Congo; Luba artist, Attributed to the workshop of the Master of Mulongo, Headrest, Mid-late 19th century. Shot by Franko Khoury.

6 - Illustration of a Baluba negroes from Abiangi

7 - Luba figurine 1909; 1909.29.1

8 - Tabwa artist, Democratic Republic of the Congo, scarification. Photo court. Photographer unknown.

9 - Ubangi region, Congo, Ngbaka. Mask, 19th century. Wood,

Mother and Child figure, Luba people, Congo, ca. 19th-20th century, wood and metal, 50 x 21.6 x 17.8 cm, Seattle Art Museum. 

   “How proud she is, striding the earth with the energy of a plow horse. How many children has she had? How many miles have those tough thighs carried her? What has that keen old face encountered with the tiny blue bead eyes that drill the air?

   Those high hard shoulders mean business—she carries her child as if it were part of her anatomy, invisible like the end of her nose. She is part of the whole facade of women’s faces. Her suffering, her laughter, he labor join together to become the impenetrable fabric of a village. She knows the role. She fits every nook and cranny with her ebullient mother-strength.“ (from Praise Poems: The Katharine White Collection, Seattle Art Museum)

                        ❧

   “Creation of the World.

   An old chief in Kukiga relates:

   Kabezya-Mpungu, the highest being, created the sky, the earth and two rational beings, man and woman. These two living beings who knew Kabezya-Mpungu did not have Mutima (heart, not a life-sustaining principle), and they were not yet able to beget.

   Kabezya-Mpungu had four children: sun, moon, darkness and rain.

   A while after creation, Kabezya-Mpungu called the four children and said, “I don’t want people to see me any longer. I return to myself and send Mutima. But before saying goodbye, I want to know what you, Rain, are up to.“

   “Ah,” replies Rain, “I think this is how I will begin to pour incessantly and put everything under water.”

   “No,” replies Kabezya-Mpungu, “don’t pretend. See these two,” and he pointed to the people, “could they live in water? Alternate with the sun. When you have watered the earth richly, leave the work to the sun to warm the earth.”

   “How will you act?” and he turned to the sun.

   “I think to go up and burn everything down.”

   “No,” said Kabezya-Mpungu, “it’s not good that way. How do you want the people I made to prepare food? If you warm the earth for a reasonable amount of time, give space to the rain so that it refreshes the soil and moistens the fruits of the earth.“

   “And you, darkness, what do you want?”

   “I always reckon to rule,” was his answer, “and to leave everything in complete darkness.”

   “Have mercy,” cried Kabezya-Mpungu, “how do you want these beings, the lions, tigers and snakes, that live on earth to perceive nothing? Listen, give the moon time to light up the earth, and when you see it in its last quarter, then you rule again on earth. But I hesitate too long, I’ll go.”

   Then Kabezya-Mpungu disappeared. The heart then appeared in a small, hand-sized vessel. The heart screamed and turned to the sun, moon, darkness and rain:

   “Kabezya-Mpungu, our father, where is he!”

   “Father is gone and we don’t know the way he went.”

Kifwebe mask from Baluba people in D. R. Congo. Ex M. Bronsin, Bruxelles Sold by Galerie L&Z Arts - Tribal Art