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Portraits of African Leadership: Memorials

• 
  Head of an Oba, 16th century (ca. 1550)
  Nigeria; Edo peoples, court of Benin
  Brass

  H. 9 1/4 in. (23.5 cm)
  The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979 (1979.206.86)

• 
  Ancestor Figure (Ekpu), 18th–19th century
  Nigeria, Calabar Province; Ibibio peoples, Oron group
  Wood

  H. 27 1/2 in. (69.9 cm)
  Purchase, Acquisitions Benefit 2006, and Ross Family Fund and Daniel and Marian Malcolm Gifts, 2007 (2007.173)

• 
  Seated Figure (Tumba), 19th–20th century
  Democratic Republic of Congo; Kongo, Bamboma
  Steatite

  H. 16 1/4 in. (41.28 cm)
  The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1968 (1978.412.573)

• 
  Figure, 19th–20th century
  Bangwa peoples; Cameroon
  Wood, pigment, encrustation, fiber

  H. 40 1/4 in. (102.2 cm)
  The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Purchase, Nelson A. Rockefeller Gift, 1968 (1978.412.576)

• 
  Seated Male Figure, 19th–20th century
  Democratic Republic of Congo; Kongo, Yombe
  Wood, glass, metal, kaolin

  H. 11 1/2 in. (29.21 cm)
  Purchase, Louis V. Bell Fund, Mildred Vander Poel Becker Bequest, Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Gift, and Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1996 (1996.281)

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Memorial depictions of rulers were sometimes employed to maintain dynastic continuity at times of potential political instability such as funerals and coronations.

Related

Timelines (3)

• Central Africa, 1600–1800 A.D.
• Central Africa, 1800–1900 A.D.
• Guinea Coast, 1600–1800 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (5)

• Asante Royal Funerary Art
• Benin Chronology
• Dona Beatriz: Kongo Prophet
• Kingdoms of Madagascar: Malagasy Funerary Arts
• Portraits of African Leadership

Other Thematic Essays (8)

• African Christianity in Kongo
• Exchange of Art and Ideas: the Benin, Owo, and Ijebu Kingdoms
• Kongo Ivories
• Origins and Empire: the Benin, Owo,and Ijebu Kingdoms
• Portraits of African Leadership: Living Rulers
• Portraits of African Leadership: Royal Ancestors
• Tutsi Basketry
• Ways of Recording African History

Maps (2)

• Africa, 1600–1800 a.d.
• World, 1600–1800 a.d.

Index Terms (22)

Art Movement/Style

• Bamum Culture of Western Africa
• Boki Peoples of Western Africa
• Bongo People from Eastern Africa
• Ejagham Peoples of Western Africa
• Esie Peoples of Western Africa
• Malagasy People of Southern Africa
• Mossi Peoples of Western Africa
• Sakalava Culture of Southern Africa

Geography/Place

• Central Africa
• Guinea Coast

Material and Technique

• Sculpture in the Round from Africa
• Sculpture in the Round from Central Africa
• Sculpture in the Round from Central Africa
• Sculpture in the Round from Guinea Coast
• Sculpture in the Round in Wood

Object

• Regalia

Subject Matter/Theme

• Allegorical Figure
• Anthropomorphic Figure
• Funerary Art
• Mourning
• Portrait Sculpture
• Portrait Sculpture from Africa and Egypt

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Unlike images of ancestral leaders such as Chibinda Ilunga, memorial portraits were created at around the time of the subject's death. These works honored important persons and were often placed in tombs or on altars where they could serve as points of contact with the spirits of those they represented. Wood or stone figural sculptures called bitumba (sing. tumba) (1996.281; 1978.412.573) were carved by some Kongo peoples of the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and placed on graves or in memorial houses dedicated to distinguished members of the community. Elements of their composition such as pose and costume represented the favorable concepts within the Kongo worldview that these individuals exemplified. Within the kingdom of Benin, brass commemorative heads (1979.206.86) were commissioned by each oba in the first years of his reign to honor his immediate predecessor. These stylized depictions of past rulers, along with other artworks associated with their reigns, were placed on altars in the royal palace where they served as conduits through which family members could petition the spirits of their antecedents for help in maintaining the health and prosperity of the kingdom.

Memorial depictions of rulers were sometimes employed to maintain dynastic continuity at times of potential political instability such as funerals and coronations. In what is today western Cameroon, freestanding portrait sculptures called lefem (1978.412.576) were carved just before a ruler's death. During the funerary ceremonies after his death, the deceased king's lefem and those of his forebears were displayed in a group as a vivid reflection on the continuity of the lineage's leadership.

Alexander Ives Bortolot Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University

Citation

Bortolot, Alexander Ives. "Portraits of African Leadership: Memorials". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/aprt_4/hd_aprt_4.htm (October 2003)

Further Reading

Ben-Amos, Paula Girshick. Art, Innovation, and Politics in Eighteenth-Century Benin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

Thompson, Robert Farris, and Joseph Cornet. The Four Moments of the Sun: Kongo Art in Two Worlds. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1981.

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