A Superb and Rare Mbuun Anthropomorphic Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo

standing on slightly curved feet, the female figure with dramatically bent legs, the torso straight, the arms with pointed elbows and raised forearms in offering position, the sturdy circular neck emerging from flat shoulders and leading to a round, flaring and tapering cup, intricately incised with semicircular and grid motifs; exceptionally fine lustrous brown patina with traces of pigment.

Christian Duponcheel, Brussels

The Mbuun are a small matrilinear people who inhabit a territory situated roughly between the Kwilu River in the west and the Loange River in the east in the south-western part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Biebuyck 1985, vol. 1: 134). Although the Mbuun do not border Kuba land, numerous similarities exist between the art of these two peoples that have not been observed in any of the groups living between them. The exact nature of the relationship between Kuba and Mbuun, however, remains unknown (Felix 1987: 108).

Mbuun sculpture is extraordinarily rare. It is distinguished by an abstract, angular and elegant style, often highly decorated with geometric design of great precision. Cf. Felix (ibid.) for further discussion. Only three other full-figure female antropomorphic cups are known (for a half-figure cup showing only a pair of legs and collected before 1910 see Mack 2004: 45):

- one in the collection of the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren (inv. no. EO 80.2.426), formerly in the Jeanne Walschot Collection (MRAC 1995: 106, cat. 72),
- a second in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum Antwerp (inv. no. AE 281), acquired in 1920 from Henry Pareyn (Herreman 1991: 26; Wassing 1968: 94, pl. 57),
- a third in the collection of Jean Willy and Marthe Mestach, Brussels (Maurer 1991: 81, cat. 59). 
  

The Anthropomorphic Mbuun cup from the Duponcheel Collection

Worthy of a surrealist representation that Magritte could have imagined, the head of this magnificent anthropomorphic figure has been changed into a ritual cup. The carver has put a lot of care in the carving of the geometric patterns. On the collar, 5 and 6 parallel grooves evoke the incised motifs of the potteries. The rest of the cup is covered with two types of patterns framed between two ranges of irregular lines that could evoke the “rainbow snake,” related to the primordial ancestor. The two patterns are half-moons made of several circle arches, and a diamond shape repeated profusely. Also the half circles can evoke the rainbow or the ritual moments of the new moon. The repeated diamonds imbas are characteristic patterns of the Mbuun. According to Els de Palmenaer (in MRAC 1995: 309), they evoke the lizard, mbil, one of the sacred animals associated with the matrilineal clans.

The fine-cut cup is held by a slight conical neck. The horizontal plan of the shoulder is roughly carved; the chest and bust have rectilinear forms that contrast with the buttock and lower body limbs, arched, dynamic and slightly bent.

The great sobriety of the carving is to be noticed, the breasts and the navel being only suggested. The arms are flexed, slightly pulled at the back; the palms of the hands stylized and presented open towards the front. The prominent buttock is the base for the eurythmy of the lower part of the body; the bent limbs are pulled forward by the lines of the knees; the rectangular racket-like feet have stylized toes.

The different ethnic groups that were part of the Kuba kingdom used to carve for their dignitaries cups that were often cephalomorphic. Anthropomorphic cups are rare and the surrealist compositions of the mbuun cups are even more rare. The latter were used for several rituals and could contain the mpemba, sacred white material used in the invocation of the ancestors. The red powder ntukula carried also a magical symbolism related to blood and life. The lacquered wood on the subject cup is black with reddish residue and suggest that indeed the cup was used as a receptacle for the ntukula red powder.

The posture of the figure, firmly bound to the ground on its bent legs, the palms open at front, could be understood as a defiantly attitude towards hostile forces and an opening to positive energies, through the intercession of the mbuun ancestors.

Francois Neyt, Louvain, June 20, 2004