20th century

Mbulu Ngulu

The Kota of Gabon in Central Africa used this type of anthropomorphic figure to guard over the sacred remains—skulls or small bones—of a family’s most important ancestors. As a type, the sculptures depict beings from another world in a mysterious and highly stylized form. The crown represents hair, the sides denote cheeks, and the diamond shape below the face signifies arms, with elbows out and hands together to protect the reliquary container or bundle that would have been attached below. Many variations of this type of symbolic representation existed, each distinct in its manner of rendering the figural form and in its application of gleaming, hammered metal over a wooden frame.