Articles

If you’re feeling the holiday buzz, but can’t tear yourself away for a full week in the sun, why not summer in the Congo (Paris) at the Quai de Branley Museum this weekend?

The Quai de Branley holds a renowned collection of African art and artifacts stretching back thousands of years and across as many miles. This summer their exhibition Congo River focuses on the peoples of central Africa and their bewitching artifacts and cultures.

Showcasing over 170 objects, the exhibition takes the visitor on a journey through the congo basin, a huge area over 4 million square metres of jungle, river and savannah. The artifacts featured were all produced by Bantu speaking peoples living in this area.  The exhibition seeks to bring together their sculptural art as a coherent yet complex whole. Drawing together artifacts from different cultural groups under one language banner allows similarities and differences in style and beliefs to be highlighted and explained.  Further order is introduced by grouping similar objects together into three main sections.

Masks, heart masks and soul eating

The first section of the exhibition begins by looking at heart shaped masks, used in rituals all over the Congo. These beautiful artifacts focus attention on the cheeks, mouth and nose of each stylized visage they portray; strong lines draw these features together into a heart shape. When in use in ritual, they are worn by dancers clothed in leaves. They are sustained by song and dance and serve as a focus for collective memory. Important symbols of communication, they also revive group identity in initiation, denounce soul eating spirits, punish the guilty, heal the sick and accompany the deceased in the hereafter. These masks are said to look into the very soul of the village when on stage for ritual performance.

Facial mask with six eyes, Kwele, 19th century © musée du quai Branly photo Patrick Gries.

Styles of carving and expressions vary from cultural group to group. Two featured masks made by the Kwele people of the equatorial jungle surround the wearer with animal horns, melding the Kwele with the animal spirits of the jungle. This design detail ties in with a ritual borrowed from the Pygmy people, in which the wearer identifies the tribe with the animals of the jungle and evidences cultural transmissions between these very different groups in Central Africa. Elsewhere the exhibition tells us that the Kwele were also noted for keeping skulls in baskets and making funeral sculptures of people’s faces, none of which have survived sad to say.

Statuette of the guardian of the shrine © musée du quai Branly photo Michel Urtado, Thierry Ollivier This statue was made by the Kota as part of their practice of ancestor worship or Bwete.  During these rites, relics representing ancestors, who are feared but whose protection is also sought, are fed with blood and food offerings.  These are subsequently eaten by the living family members. Sculptures like the on the left were burnished with sand so they shone in the ritual dances which were a part of these ceremonies.

Necro magic

For many Congalese tribespeople, the more dead an ancestor was, the more potentially dangerous, with forgotten ancestors who had died violent deaths having the most potential for malevolent return. The shared tradition of ancestral reliquaries and statues forges another cultural link across the basin, a commonly held insurance policy against forgetfulness. Some of these bone-storage boxes are beautifully decorated with cowrie shells, some are carved into the shape of an ancestor - the bones kept in a hollow in the abdomen. All were deeply venerated and served to reinforce group identity.  Some magicians would use the relics to invoke the spirits of the ancestors in malicious spells against individuals. These could be counteracted by priests who mediated between the living and the dead.

Ikwara mask, Gabon, Punu, 19th century © musée du quai Branly photo Patrick Gries This mask comes from Gabon, south of the Ogooué river.  Ritual scarification is represented by the dots seen on the forehead and cuts at the sides of the lips and temples.  The mask's expression seems serene here, but when worn in ritual dance, could be made terrifying depending on the dancer's intentions.

First ladies of the Savannah

The exhibition finishes with a display of female representation in the Kingdoms of the savannah. The high status of women among the Bantu speaking peoples of the Congo is reflected in the traditions of Matrilineal descent found throughout the area. In the myths of the Luba people it is only women who are able to break through the sky to hear messages from the genies. Objects on display include anatomically explicit statues, lovingly carved with emphasis on the breasts, labia and youthfulness of their subjects, to magnify their potency and fertility.

Never before has the Congo been so close to London, so why not take an air conditioned trip down the Congo River followed by a/several glass/es of wine by the Seine while you still have the chance.

Exhibition closes on 3rd October 2010.

Follow this link for the Quai Branley website