Tabwa ancestor couple; Democratic Republic of Congo, first half of the 20th century.

Pair of Tabwa ancestors; Democratic Republic of Congo, first half of the 20th century.
Wood with dark and shiny patina. With beaded necklaces and methacrylate stand.
Provenance: private collection Düsseldorf / collection Hans-Rolf Kalde (1950 - 2013, Aachen.
Measurements: 32 x 12 x 9 cm; 31 x 11 x 10 x 10 cm.
Pair of figures in hardwood, and beaded necklaces. They present extended torso with hands at the height of the prominent navel, rounded shoulders under a cylindrical and wide neck, a face with open mouth and scarifications, almond-shaped eyes with seashells, scarifications on the forehead, temple and cheeks, and a headdress-like hairstyle with braids forming small pyramids. Dark, shiny and crusted patina.
In this type of magical and religious objects of traditional Africa, nothing is left to chance and everything, down to the smallest detail, responds to a codified and initiatory language, whose reading is not available to all individuals of the cultural group for which they have been conceived, but often only for the most experienced initiates, the elders who have gone through the various stages of training, of initiation. If there is a common thread that allows us to travel through Africa through its artistic creations, that thread is that of a concept as intangible and unreal as that of magic, conceived as the path to follow for the control of supernatural forces and for the understanding of Nature. As part of this attempt to understand the natural and control the supernatural, in Africa, as in practically all pre-industrial societies, instruments suitable for the management of certain energies appear, sometimes in the form of a mask, sometimes in the form of a sculpture, or a fetish, or a conglomerate of elements, sometimes just a stone placed horizontally or a line drawn on the ground.