Shankadi Maternity Sculpture

This strong carved figure of a seated woman and her child was made by the Shankadi group what was once Zaire. It is a traditional rendering, with an outsize head, a short torso and muscular legs. The forehead is high and domed, with triangular ears and a highly ornate “cascade” tiered coiffure that gives the head an elongated appearance. The face is carved in low relief with oval eyes, a sharp nose and a slightly open mouth. The knees and elbows are flexed, the hands resting on the knees. The breasts are pointed and pert, and she is feeding her child from the left. The patina is shiny and glossy, suggesting that the piece may have been handled and covered with libations such as oil.

The Shankadi are essentially a subgroup of the Luba peoples. They have a social system based around a hereditary chief known as a Mulohwe (who is presumably answerable to the Luba overlord, although the exact nature of their relationship is somewhat obscure. Over a million people pay tribute to the descendants of King Kongolo Maniema (who founded the dynasty in 1585), the king of the Luba. They were particularly reliant upon fishing and industries such as metalworking, leading to their status as a primary node on an ever-expanding trade network that wound its way throughout West Africa and as far as the Indian Ocean. They expanded enormously during the 18th and 19th centuries, but were seriously impacted upon by slaving missions and the rise of the Ovimbudu people of Angola; they were eventually subsumed into the Belgian Congo Empire in the early 20th century. The nature of their relationship with the immediately proximate Hemba people is still something of a bone of contention in African art circles.

They were governed by a combination of divine kingship and rule by council; the king (Mulopwe) ruled through a set of social notables who were collectively known as Bamfumus. These both controlled the Balopwe or “clan kings”, who governed designated areas as symbolic sons of the king. Social harmony and memory was controlled through the Bambudye (or Mbudye) secret society, whose members are obliged to remember and recite the whole history of the Luba people from their foundation, often using “lukasa” boards as aides-memoire. The Mbudye tradition states that all rulers of the Luba Empire traced their ancestry to Kalala Ilunga, a mystical hunter credited with toppling the cruel ruler known as Nkongolo. This figure is also credited with the introduction of advanced iron forging techniques to the Luba peoples. Aristocratic status is attained by the ability to trace one’s lineage to a founding member of the Luba people; although western academia might dismiss most of the early stages as myth, Mbudye memory scholars consider then to be the essence of truth. The king lists are especially important, as the divine status of rulers has had a notable effect on the arts and crafts of the Luba empire.