A superb Kuyu male figure

of overall upright, cylindrical form, the long feet supporting the muscular legs with articulated ankles and knees, the pendant phallus beneath the elongated torso with square shoulders pitched back and leading to straight arms held to the sides, the thick neck supporting the head with a flat facial plane and expressive features, with a lenticular mouth baring filed teeth and wide slit eyes, and wearing crested, striated coiffure; '10445' in white pigment on the foot; deep brown patina overall with faint areas of red and white pigment.

Henri L. Schouten, Amsterdam, January 2, 1969

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Public Museum, Selections from the William W. Brill Collection of African Art, May 5 – August 31, 1969 (for additional venues see bibliography, Milwaukee 1969)

The Kuyu male Ancestor Statue from the Brill Collection
by Anne-Marie Bénézech

The statue of good size shows a standing man in the hieratic posture of a chief. The massive legs, connected by the tip of the toes, the blockiness of the torso framed by the square angles of the shoulders and by the elongated arms reaching up to the base of the thighs underline an impressive authority that is further emphasized by the head of full forms, by the static glance, by the indentation of the mouth with sharp/pointed teeth. The columnar neck and the rising crest of the coiffure lye the emphasis on the representation of the statues’ sacred power. A vigor and power analogous to the tree-trunk from which it is hewn. The forms, alternatingly schematic and synthetic, are pervaded by a subtle modelling which gives its compact musculature the quivering of a vital fluid. Here the knot of the navel is more prominent than the prominent genitalia, which are set back. The set of scarifications of the face completes the information of the signs attributed to the chief even though the sculpture has lost its original polychrome pigmentation.

The interest of this sculpture lies in the fact that it stylistically belongs to style III (cf. Bénézech 1988: 56-59). In Kuyu art sculptures of this style are generally only known from dance crests as used in the kebe kebe dance. The Kuyu standing male figure finds its female counterpart in a private collection in Paris. Both pieces were made by the same hand and apparently created as a pair. It is interesting to note that the proportions of the two figures are distinguished according to the gender: in the male figure (40in.; 101.5cm) the height from the top of the head to the bottom of the neck is identical to the height of the trunk, the legs are slightly longer. In the female figure (35in.; 89cm) the proportions change, the sculptor having given more importance to the trunk even though the chest is in low relief.

Corresponding to the dotted linear scarifications on the upper limbs of statues of style I, one notices the incision of a long straight rectangle which is characteristic of the two statues and of a third one in the Musée d’Ethnographie, Geneva, that was acquired by the painter Chambon from Alfred Poupon, a French administrator stationed in the Kuyu territory from 1904 to 1907 and 1913 to 1917.

All three statues share the same appearance, the same coiffure, and the same posture with the arms straight to the body. In this lies the following meaning: When the chief holds his arms along his body he is available for his peers. When he holds his arms close to the body with open palms, he is in communication with the ancestors and under all circumstances he cannot be disturbed.

A couple appearing in this posture represents the first human ancestors of the Kuyu, following the myth of the founder: Djokou, the man and Ebotita, the producer of infants (the first ancestor was the Snake djo). They were shown to the Kuyu people only every fifth time the important Djo-ceremony was held, a ceremony which had a complicated symbolism and during which initiations took place.