A Holo Seated Female Figure, Angola

the female figure seated with elbows resting on the knees and hands touching the cheeks; fine reddish-brown patina with encrustation.

Peter Loebarth, Hameln
Fred Jahn, Munich

Iowa City, The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection, March 27 - May 23, 1999 (for additional venues see bibliography, Roy 1997)

François Neyt, Art traditional et Histoire au Zaïre: Cultures Forestières et Royaumes de la Savane, Louvain, 1981, pp. 125-126, fig. VI.13
François Neyt, The Art of the Holo, Munich, 1982, p. 72, fig. 33
Christopher D. Roy, Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection, Seattle, 1997, pp. 221 and 376 , fig. 134
--, Kilengi. Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Bareiss, Hanover, 1997, pp. 225 and 381, fig. 134
Raoul Lehuard, "Kilengi," Arts d'Afrique Noire Premiers, no. 106, Eté 1998, p. 42

very good condition overall; back of base and buttocks eroded (insect damage), age crack sand insect damage along the spine and on left shoulder blade and right side of body; fine reddish-brown patina with large amounts of encrustation.
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According to Neyt (1982: 40) this figure "comes from the village Paka in Angola (Boti Region, Malange Province). It is said to be a magic figure mvunzi, which protects humans against certain evil spirits. The main fortuneteller usually possesses such mvunzi, who employs them in cases of sickness, for theft or for the hunt."

Roy (1997: 376, text to fig. 134) adds: "This female figure was used by a traditional healer of the Tulamba segment of Holo society to manipulate the super-natural power that was his by right of first occupation of the land. Such power figures, used for healing, are called mvunzi, and the object represents the pole opposite [of] the queen figure Holo dya Mukhetu in the system of oppositions of nature/culture, magical/political power. [...] The squatting or hocken pose is ubiquitous in the Kwango-Kwili Rivers area among such nearby peoples as the Yaka, Suku and Chokwe. The heart-shaped face and convex, oval eyes are reminiscent of the masks of peoples to the north, down the Kwango River, especially the Lula."