A Lengola Figure, Democratic Republic of the Congo

akungu molimu, rising from parted legs, the anthropomorphic figure with elongated torso, short arms, and heart-shaped facial plane; fine aged dark brown patina with traces of kaolin and pigment.

Jacques Hautelet, Brussels
Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels
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, p. 43, fig. II.13
Christopher D. Roy, Kilengi: African Art from the Bareiss Family Collection, Seattle, 1997, pp. 265 and 392, fig. 169
--, Kilengi. Afrikanische Kunst aus der Sammlung Bareiss, Hanover, 1997, pp. 269 and 397, fig. 169

fair condition overall; left leg and lower body and left arm partially eroded; (insect damage); crusty patina with partial losses.
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Roy (1997: 392, text to fig. 169) notes: "The female initiation society of the Lengola is called ekongo, and employs freestanding figures named akungu. [Biebuyck 1977: 54, quoted after Roy:] The figurine, called 'akungu molimu,' is in the possession of female healers ('ekongo') and stored in a house containing several other unidentified figurines. The figurines may not leave this house and cannot be seen by men [...] When a woman is seriously ill she is taken back to her home village by her female kinsfolk to be healed by a woman. Until she is well the woman must reside in the house with the figurines. Nothing is known regarding the other aspects of the treatment, which involves dances and rare drumming by women. [...] The akunga figures are much smaller than the enormous, impressive primordial ancestor figures (ubanga nyama) that are erected at the center of each village during funerals of high-ranking members of the bukota initiation society."