Stool supported by kneeling female figure (kipona)

Royal regalia of the Luba peoples include bow stands, spears, cups, staffs, and thrones. The throne, carved in the form of a caryatid stool called a kipona, is the king's most important symbol of his status. It is tangible proof that he is a descendant of Mbidi Kiluwe, the legendary seventeenth-century ruler who founded the kingdom. In fact, when the king sat on his caryatid throne, his feet did not touch the ground, but rested on his wife's lap (fig. 27). The kipona is also a receptacle for the king's spirit. Perhaps because they are so important, kipona are not always on public view, but covered with a white cloth and guarded by a palace official at a site well away from the village.(38)

The caryatid stool in the Dallas Museum of Art collection depicts a female with a high forehead, heavy lidded eyes, and a serene facial expression. Posed kneeling, she supports the seat with her head and hands. Her torso and thighs are decorated with symmetrical patterns carved in relief. The back of her head reveals a cross-form hairstyle carved in high relief.

Although the Luba are a patrilineal society, most items of Luba regalia created from the eighteenth to the twentieth century depict females rather than males. An explanation may lie in the fact that the female image represents more than the aesthetic ideal. Feminine imagery reminds one that women have played important roles in Luba history by wielding power behind the scenes as counselors, titleholders, priestesses, spirit mediums, ambassadors, and symbolic kings. Of course, from the male perspective, women also have that mysterious ability to bear children.

Their support is both literal and spiritual. According to Verney Lovett Cameron, a British traveler who accompanied Sir Richard Burton to Central Africa in 1882, a woman was placed on her hands and knees upon a chief's death and made to support the dead king and his treasury.(39) Another report asserts that women were spirit mediums (mwadi). The mwadi, possessed by the dead king's spirit, lived a celibate life that was dedicated to perpetuating the king's memory.(40)

The Arts of Africa at the Dallas Museum of Art, cat. 20, pp. 82-83

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NOTES:

38. Roberts, Mary Nooter, and Allen F. Roberts, eds. Memory: Luba and the Making of History. New York: Museum for African Art; Munich: Prestel, 1996. p. 154.

39. Cameron, Vemey Lovett. Across Africa. New York: Harper, 1877. p. 333.

40. Roberts and Roberts, 1996. p. 156.