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46. Royal Spear: Female Figure (Mulumbu)
Luba, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Wood, metal; H. 135.9 cm (53 1/2 in.)
19th century
The Field Museum, Chicago
210462

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46. Royal Spear: Female Figure (Mulumbu)

According to the genesis myth recounted in Luba oral history, inhabitants of the region of Shaba, in the southeastern area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, were governed during the seventeenth century by a tyrannical ruler, Nkongolo Mwamba. The end of Nkongolo's reign was foreshadowed by the arrival of a hunter prince, Mbidi Kiluwe, from the east. The union of Mbidi with one of Nkongolo's sisters produced a son named Kalala Ilunga. Kalala displaced his uncle through the guidance of the diviner Mijibu wa Kalenga and implemented a new political system of sacred kingship introduced by his father.

Kalala's triumph is most notably memorialized in an account of a mythical encounter in which Nkongolo invited his nephew to perform a dance over a concealed pit planted full of upright spears. Forewarned by Mijibu, Kalala avoided being impaled by detecting the pit and uncovering it with his own spear.1 The revelation that saved Kalala from destruction is celebrated in ritual reenactments of this episode, the dance of spears (kutomboka), which is performed at the end of every chiefly investiture. The crucial importance of Mijibu's intervention at the inception of Luba sacral kingship is profoundly embodied by the elaborately decorated figurative spears (milumbu) owned by Luba chiefs and kings. According to Luba ideology, Mbidi bestowed a prototypical set of royal insignias on his son Kalala at his investiture as the first legitimate Luba ruler. Each subsequent leader has owned a comparable set of insignias, but they are considered by definition to be merely reproductions.2 In addition to the spears, these may include a throne, staff, ceremonial adze, ornamental bow stand, lukasa memory board, and dikumbo relic basket. Bestowed upon leaders at the beginning of their reign, they assure its legitimacy. During the investiture rites (mulopwe), the chief's sister and his wife plant the staff and mulumbu in the ground at his left and right sides, and he holds them as he swears his oath of office.3

In this classic example, the female figure stands at the intersection of the metal blade and the wooden staff, symbolizing her role as an intermediary between two worlds. Her closed eyes and facial expression suggest a meditative state, and she holds her hands to her breasts—a gesture that in Luba culture refers to the idea that women guard knowledge essential to sacral kingship within their breasts. Here, they contain the stipulations for the royal behavioral prohibitions that must be observed in order to harness the supernatural powers upon which Luba leadership depends.4 The strands of beads that adorn her neck and hips are worn by royal titleholders, healers, and Bilumbu diviners and are more broadly suggestive of devices that yield information by triggering memories.5

The spears' inclusion in royal treasuries and their appearance in rituals associated with investiture reflect the defining influence of divination on directing the course of Luba history, and also suggest the original impetus for the essential role that divination has played in Luba governance.

1. Memory 1996, p. 76.

2. Nooter 1991, p. 132.

3. Ibid., p. 133.

4. Ibid., p. 243.

5. Memory 1996, p. 29.