This cup was used to drink palm wine obtained from the raffia palm tree. This is the most popular beverage consumed in the Kuba kingdom. Because the first palm wine taken from the tree is considered the sweetest and thereafter becomes progressively stronger, the Kuba people compare it to their own society: sweet youth lacks wisdom, wise old age lacks sweetness of character (Torday, 1925).
The Kuba king had an entire collection of marvelously decorated cups although wasn't allowed to drink or eat in public. Cornet (Dapper, 1997) explains that these cups were reserved for the chiefs and notables and participated to the permanent competition for power and prestige. The artists used their skills to create spectacular drinking cups decorated with geometric designs, or taking the forms of drums, heads and sometimes human beings. The most desirable cups were always carved by the royal workshops. After the appearance of metallic, glass and plastic cups, the wooden cups were slowly abandoned.
Following a surrealistic composition, the Beyeler Kuba cup represents a human being with a highly stylized body. The sculptor used all his skills to emphasize the importance of the head, the impressive headdress and the feet, reducing the other parts of the body to a cylinder.
The creativity of the composition and the sculpture's quality indicate that the Beyeler cup was the regalia of a high-ranking Kuba nobleman.

Cf. De Meyere (1975, p.18) for a closely related cup from the Museum für Völkerkunde, Hamburg.