A RARE LEGA WINGED FIGURE, standing with the flexed legs on out-turned feet, the flat body and upheld wing-like arms pierced multiple times, the oval Janus head with heart-shaped faces, each with oval eyes, triangular nose with pierced nostrils and narrow mouth with notched lips, dark glossy patina with traces of kaolin about the face, minor chips

Details
A RARE LEGA WINGED FIGURE, standing with the flexed legs on out-turned feet, the flat body and upheld wing-like arms pierced multiple times, the oval Janus head with heart-shaped faces, each with oval eyes, triangular nose with pierced nostrils and narrow mouth with notched lips, dark glossy patina with traces of kaolin about the face, minor chips
36cm. high
Literature
Kerchache, Paudrat and Stéphan, 1988, p.440, fig 661/662
where it mentions the figure was collected in 1926

Lot Essay

Biebuyck (1973, Pl.63) illustrates a very similar figure he collected from the Beiamunsange clan in the Beia sector, Pangi territory, where it was used in musagi and lutumbo lwa kindi rites, kept in a mutulwa basket. He describes how the basket, with its contents, is an expression of the unity and autonomy of the ritual community. The key aphorism referring to the figure states "I used to love you; fondling destroys good ones; it has destroyed Katanda." The figurine represents Katanda. Although literally meaning "mat", the term also connotes "something bad"; a wild dispersal of red ants, for example, is referred to as katanda ke ibazi. The holes in the body of the figure suggest the dispersal of ants and signify evil. The statue is used in a context of human figurines and other objects to stress the positive and negative aspects of the bwami code of ethics.
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