Sculptural Element from a Reliquary Ensemble (mbulu ngulu)
Unknown Artist
probably 1800s
Medium
Wood, copper alloy, and iron
Dimensions
61 × 27.5 × 3 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
African Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
Accession Number
2005.2
About this artwork
The ethnic map of eastern Gabon is extremely complicated as a result of continuous migratory movements since the 17th century. Kota is the name of one of three culturally closely related people. All share the tradition of commemorating and honoring ancestors through the preservation and worship of sacred ancestral relics within cylindrical bark containers or bound in fiber packets. Covered with sheets of copper and brass, this abstract wooden human-shaped figure—distilled to a planar surface—ser...