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Kongo-Yombe Power Figure of the name "Mananguna", Democratic Republic of the Congo
Description
- wood, nails, glass (mirror)
- Height: 24 3/4 in (62.9 cm)
Provenance
Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain, acquired from the above in 1909 (inv. no. "210")
Mrs. J. Schwob, Brussels
Merton D. Simpson, New York (inv. no. "4893"), acquired from the above in October 1985
Allan Stone, New York, acquired from the above on October 30, 1985
Exhibited
The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, May 14 - September 4, 2011
Literature
Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Power Incarnate: Allan Stone's Collection of Sculpture from the Congo, Greenwich, Connecticut, 2011, p. 29, cat. 5
Catalogue Note
Bittremieux was the author of the first major study on Mayombe, published in 1911 and entitled De geheime sekte der Bakhimba (the Secret Sect of the Bakhimba). He opens this book (quoted after Raymaekers in Tollebeek 2011: 20): "The missionary who lives among the black peoples of Kongoland, speaks their language, adopts their vocabulary, expressions and legends, enquires into their customs and institutions encounters an amazing world: an extraordinary human world, strange of appearance and mysterious in content." Raymaekers (ibid.) notes that Bittremieux "lived in Mayombe, among other places, from 1907 onwards, spoke the language like none other and was truly interested in the inhabitants of the region. He spent the subsequent years there documenting and studying the local culture. The study resulted in a series of valuable publications and an exceptional collection of objects [... which] still constitute important sources for knowledge about Mayombe". For further discussion see Tollebeek (2011).
In the inventory of items sent to Leuven in 1909, Bittremieux wrote of this figure: "Mus[eum] Leuven./Objects from Kangu and Kizu/ Nkisi (minkisi). […] Mananguna. The one to be consulted when to know, for example, who has been stealing. Powerful."