The Kota (or Bakota) people live in the East and Southeast of Gabon – a smaller proportion also cross the border into the Congo. The original religion of the Kota people was a distinct ancestor cult: previously the deceased lay out in the forest, subsequently they were buried in the earth. After some time the skulls of important clan founders and chieftains were excavated and, as a sort of ‘second funeral’, were placed in large baskets with other remembrance pieces. These baskets were sealed and preserved in special huts, or ‘sacred shrines’. If the village was moved, the baskets containing the bones of the ancestors accompanied the tribe to the new village, where they constructed a new, special ‘shrine’.

The reliquary guardians.
On each of these baskets containing the ancestor’s bones ‘sat’ a reliquary guardian figure, the ‘mbulu ngulu’ (‘reliquary basket with figure’). They were carved from wood and covered with brass plates or copper discs. The figures towered over each basket. The lower diamond shape reached into the vessel and was attached. The baskets were only brought out for important whole-village ceremonies. They were opened and their contents – the skulls of their ancestors – were presented, explained and ritually honoured. And so the venerated ancestors took part in the lives of their descendants. It is generally assumed that the ancestor cult of the Kota people, with its baskets and famous reliquary guardian figures, began in the 18th century and by roughly 1940 was extinct.

According to Dr. Louis Perrois (France), one of the greatest connoisseurs of the art of Gabon, “many reliquary guardian figures of this type were collected during the 1920s and 30s. It is known that the rituals of the ancestor cult would only be actively practised until around 1940 among the Kota people.”

Kota figures and modern art.
Towards the end of the 19th century the first reliquary guardian figures came to Europe and became some of the most coveted collectors’ pieces within the field of African art, which they still are today. The ‘modernist’ artists living in Paris in the early 20th century were especially fascinated by the radical abstraction of the human body manifested in the Kota ‘mbulu ngulu’. The development of ‘cubism’ in European art would not have been conceivable without the awareness of these Kota reliquary figures and other African art objects. Superstar Pablo Picasso naturally had a large, beautiful Kota figure as part of his extensive collection of so-called ‘primitive art’. The sculptor Alberto Giacometti also had one. For Juan Gris, cubist painter and friend of Picasso’s, these reliquary sculptures were such important, formally ‘desired objects’ that, in 1922, he crafted his own ‘mbulu ngulu’ out of brown cardboard.
The present, large and typical reliquary guardian figure probably originates from the south of the Kota settlement area (in the headwaters of the Ogowe river) and stylistically belongs to the subgroup ‘Kota Ndumu’ or ‘Kota Obamba’. Its ‘body’, including the lower diamond shape, has been carved from one piece of hard, brown wood and dyed black and brown. The long, oval face protrudes slightly forwards (around 3 to 4 cm), away from the two-dimensional surfaces of the side ‘cheeks’ and the ‘hairstyle’. It is slightly concave and curves inwards. The face is separated into four sections by two flat, yellow brass sheets in a cross shape. A slender brass nose sits in the centre, with a triangular profile and is flanked on either side by the brass hemispherical eyes with their small, circular pupils made from copper. The ‘mouth’ consists of two V-shaped chased, dotted lines. The four outer sections of the face are covered with hammered, red copper sheets in the form of a ‘sunray motif’.

The flat, two-dimensional part of the head – the ‘cheeks’ on the side and the arched hairstyle above – are only covered with brass sheets on the front side and are decorated with chased lines, diamonds and a zigzag band (right at the top). The neck, as well as both round, outwardly slanting projections below the cheeks, are enveloped with brass sheets. Here the sheet metal is also chased with lines and diamond shapes. All copper pins, used to attach the brass sheets to the wooden body of the figure below, were produced locally (hammered – they are not imported nails).
The characteristic, strong, square diamond below is gently curved and finished at the bottom with a round, flat, pierced ‘stud’. The diamond and the back side of the head have no metal fittings. A protruding diamond shape in relief sits on the flat, reverse side of the head.
This item has an impressive shiny patina from protracted use and only some minor, age-related damage: some colour abrasion along the edges, some slight cracks and small breakages on the diamond below, as well as some small superficial holes on the smooth back side (traces of old insect damage?) It has a small, old collection label on the reverse, with the letter ‘D’. Overall it is an old object in good condition. Height: 53 cm; width: 27 cm. From before or around 1920.

Provenance:
According to the consignor, the present item was purchased by his father in Paris in between 1950 and 1955. Austrian private collection

Lit.:
‘Chefs-d’oeuvres d’Afrique, dans les collections du Musée Dapper’, Musée Dapper Paris, ill. p. 38; ‘Ancestral Art of Gabon’ by Louis Perrois, colour il. 5;
‘L’Art Kota’ by Alain and Francoise Chaffin, ill. 84, 85, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 134, 135, 136, 137, 179, 188, 190, 192, 193, 194, 199;
‘Les Souffle des Esprits. Art sacré du bassin de l’Ogooué’ by Pierre Redouin, ill. p. 42, 205, 209, 210;
‘Ancetres Kota’, catalogue Bernard Dulon, texts by Louis Perrois, colour il. 8, 9; ‘Tribal Art Magazin’, special issue ‘Kota. New light’, winter 2015; etc.