A Lega statuette, DR Congo, collected in Mbili village of the Manieme region. Signs of ritual use and age. Ceertificate of origin and provenance.

"In the 19th century, prior to the colonization of the Congo by the Belgians, the Lega peoples had no centralized political system. They were governed by Bwami, a graded association open to all men and women in a given village. Bwami was both a political and an educational system by which esteemed Lega values were taught: moderation, nonviolence, solidarity, respect, constraint and moral as well as physical beauty. It was also a framework for political relationships, a means of establishing cross-kinship and cross-village solidarities and a source of entertainment. Above all, Bwamiwas a channel for prestige and the sole motivation for the visual arts.
...Typically crudely carved, these figurines were part of communally held baskets that, through the various wood and natural objects within, symbolically embodied a host of powerful expressions of social and ritual solidarity within and between groups. Unlike masks, which acquire their various meanings through use, figures generally carried a more static and fixed individualized meaning.
Lega sculptures are rare because the Bwami society was outlawed in 1948, owing to the Belgian colonial government's misunderstanding of its beliefs and aspirations." Source: The Simthsonian

Height: 51 cm
Weight: 1,0 kg