Among the Lulua, the Buanga Bua Cibola, a fertility cult,
addresses the plight of mothers whose babies were stillborn or died in infancy. The
cult ensures that the soul of the deceased infant returns to its mother's womb to be
reborn. Figures representing a pregnant woman or a mother and child, carved as a
complete figure or ending in a point like this one, are used in the cult. During
pregnancy a woman is isolated for a specified period of time as imposed by the cult
and commissions a figure from a sculptor. Upon the delivery of the sculpture, the
period of isolation ends. Once it is in her possession, she keeps the figure in a basket
near her bed & regularly rubs it with oil and tukula, a paste made from a hardwood.
The figure is brought out on nights when there is a full moon, a symbol of fertility.
Characteristic of Lulua statuary and people, this maternity figure has elaborately
coiffed hair and a gleaming skin that is covered with detailed scarification. These are
more than expressions of the Lulua aesthetic; rather, buimpe (beauty) is simul-
taneously a moral & a physical quality, which is manifested in the quality of one's
skin. Without a beautiful skin, one is considered evil. Thus the "healthy skin" of the
figure must be achieved by the woman to ensure the moral and physical integrity of
her newborn child, the reborn ancestor.
ex Jean-Pierre Hallet
MEASUREMENTS: H: 9 1/2” x W: 2 3/4” x D: 2 3/4”
