#yombe

[lionofchaeronea]

Wooden mother-and-child figure of the Yombe people, present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. The figure represents the founding ancestor of a kinship lineage and is thought to have been used in the treatment of infertility. Date: mid- to late 19th century. Location: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, USA.

[jareckiworld]

Statue Kongo-Yombe Wooden Nkisi Nkondi Sculpture  [Collection Pierre et Suzanne Vérité, Paris, avant 1955]

[wallacepolsom]

Wallace Polsom, What Was Expressive Authenticity? (2021), paper collage, 21.5 x 28 cm.

[magica-pseudoacademica]

The Yombe believe that witches are not born as such but are persons who engage in particular practices. They do not possess some innate substance that gives them their power. Witchcraft involves special knowledge and the use of medicines to produce a desired effect. It does not involve spiritual beings. Individuals become witches through their choices and actions and the manipulation of material substances. Through their knowledge of medicines witches are thought to be capable of remarkable feats ranging from the ability to cause minor and grave misfortunes to nightly flights over great distances. And yet they are restricted by their corporeal being and their travels to nocturnal sojourns. They are associated with creatures of the night, such as owls and hyenas - their familiars - and it is during the night that they make their visitations.

George Clement Bond, “Ancestors and Witches: Explanations and the Ideology of Individual Power in the Northern Zambia” (2001)

[acrosscenturiesandgenerations]

▪Power Figure (Nkisi N'Kondi: Mangaaka). Date: 19th century Geography: Republic of the Congo or Cabinda, Angola, Chiloango River region Culture: Kongo peoples; Yombe group Medium: Wood, iron, resin, ceramic, plant fiber, textile, pigment.

[fishstickmonkey]

Commemorative Mother and Child Figure

Date: 19th–20th century

Geography: Angola or Democratic Republic of the Congo

Culture: Kongo, Yombe group

Medium: Wood, glass, metal, pigment

Metropolitan Museum of Art

[lionofchaeronea]

Wooden head of a scepter, of the Yombe people, present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Artist unknown; 19th century. Now in the Louvre. Photo credit: CherryX/Wikimedia Commons.

[lionofchaeronea]

Carved wooden figure of a mother and child (phemba), of the Yombe people, Kongo Central Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Artist unknown; 19th century.  Now in the Brooklyn Museum.  Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum.