Bwadi bwa Chikwanga: a ram mask of the Bakwa Luntu.

With the exception of a few objects from the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium, which are reproduced in Marc Leo Felix's 100 Peoples of Zaire and Their Sculpture (1987), the art of the Bakwa Luntu is scarcely known. In the region between Mashala and Dimbelenge in the province of West Kasai, however, the Bakwa Luntu, or simply Luntu, are reputed for an impressive type of helmet mask called (Bwadi bwa) Chikwanga. Because these ram masks are associated with powerful ideas related to sorcery, however, their production and use are surrounded by much secrecy. Apparently the work of one or two artists only, few masks of this type have been made.

From a formal point of view, the Chikwanga mask type is unique to the Luntu and easily identifiable. It is characterized by the carved imitation of curbed ram's horns on both sides of the face. A tab-like projection on the center of a carved skullcap served to hold a headdress of animal skins and feathers. In most examples, incised lines that are colored white imitate facial scars. To my knowledge, such masks can be found in only two public museums in the West: the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts (Fig. 1), and the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (Fig. 3). The other public institution where I have seen two Chikwanga masks is the Institut des Musees Nationaux du Congo in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mask in the collection of Marc Leo Felix (Fig. 2), which is stylistically somewhat different, is the only example I know of in private hands.

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The Peabody mask was acquired in Kananga by the American photographer and traveler Eliot Elisofon during his first voyage to Africa in 1947. He purchased it from a military officer in Kananga (formerly Luluabourg) who would have field-collected it in the interior of the Congo about twenty years earlier. Unfortunately, no further details about the mask are available, and Elisofon's photographic legacy in the archives bearing his name at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., shows no trace of the Bakwa Luntu. Almost no information is available on the field-collection histories of the other Chikwanga masks. With the exception of the pieces in the Kinshasa museum, the attribution of these masks to the Luntu is based on the combination of stylistic and iconographic traits. (1)

The Bakwa Luntu

As far as I have been able to determine, the Luntu were mentioned for the first time by the German explorer Hermann Wissmann, who presents them as a subgroup of the Baschilange (one of the names given to the Luluwa in nineteenth and early twentieth century German sources) and calls them "Bena Luntu" (Wissmann 1888:354 and map 21). Curiously enough, the name "Luntu" does not appear in the field notes of Leo Frobenius, who crossed southern Congo in 1905-06. He does, however, cite the chief "Kosch" of the "Koschi" as one of the great Luba chiefs (Frobenius 1990:46). Obviously, this name refers to the Konji or Nkoshi, closely related eastern neighbors of the Luntu. It cannot be ruled out that the two peoples once formed a single ethnic group. The fact is that the name Konji/Nkoshi is quite frequently cited in sources dating back to the early twentieth century, while Luntu is generally not mentioned (see, for example, Torday 1910:31).

The exclusive focus of many scholars on the Kuba and their lavish court arts undoubtedly contributed to the neglect of the Luntu and many other small ethnic groups in the province of West Kasai. The Luntu are cursorily treated in publications of missionaries Henri Bogaerts (1936, 1937, 1951) and Prosper Denolf (1954) and colonial servants Georges Brausch (1942), Jules-Auguste Fourche, and Henri Morlighem (1937; see also Boone 1961:169-72). Aspects of their culture also are dealt with in a series of articles in the journal Enseignement et Education, published by the Catholic order of the Freres de la Charite of Lusambo (Anonymous 1910-20).

Information about Luntu art is even more limited. One of the few primary sources is to be found in the unpublished field notebooks left by the Belgian art historian Albert Maesen. (2) From July 1953 to August 1955, Maesen conducted a collecting expedition in the Congo under the auspices of the Ministry of the Colonies for the Museum of the Belgian Congo (as the Tervuren Royal Museum for Central Africa, or Africa-Museum, was then called). In 1955, Maesen visited the Luntu and the neighboring and closely related Konji. During this trip, he collected a wide variety of objects. He also made some field photographs, and his field notes contain drawings of those objects that he did not collect. The concise discussion of Luntu art in Felix's handbook of 1987 is mainly based on Maesen's unpublished notes and relates first and foremost to the collections of the Tervuren Museum.

Luntu masks are discussed in yet another unpublished source: an MA thesis written by Ndaya Ngalula Mayibungi under the direction of Rik Ceyssens at the Institut Superieur Pedagogique of the former Universite Nationale du Zaire in Kananga. This thesis focuses on the leopard society, Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama, which oversees the making and use of a number of masks, including the Chikwanga helmet mask.

The Luntu inhabit the central and southern part of the administrative unit known as the "Dimbelenge zone." They live in the hills along the Lubilanji River, on the plains of Lake Munkamba, and in the forests south of the Sankuru River. Though mainly farmers, they also keep some small livestock and enrich their diet with animal meat gained through individual and communal hunts. Local markets have always stimulated a small-scale barter (Bogaerts 1951:567-73).

The Luntu are closely related to the neighboring Konji, Luluwa, and LubaLubilanji. All these peoples consist of a mixture of local populations known as either Kete or Bindi, on the one hand, and Luba immigrants from Katanga, on the other. Like the Luluwa and the Konji, the Luntu speak a Chiluba dialect (Stappers 1952:53; see also Hulstaert 1954:26-7) and mention a mythical site called Nsanga a Lubangu as their common place of origin. However, contrary to their neighbors, the Luntu place Nsanga a Lubangu near Lake Munkamba, the site where the leopard society Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama would have originated as well (Ndaya 1975-76:50-52). The Luntu and the Konji are often considered as synonyms for a single ethnic group by outsiders, but today they view themselves as autonomous ethnic units with their own genealogies and history. (3) Both peoples also have clearly distinct mask traditions. Elsewhere, I have published a photograph that Albert Maesen made in the Konji village of Batwape in 1955 and reproduced one of the Konji masks he collected for the Africa-Museum (Petridis 2000b:Figs. 2-3).

Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama, the Leopard Society

Many African peoples consider the leopard to be an important symbol of power. The association between leopard, prestige, and leadership has been described in great detail with reference to the Kuba (Vansina 1964:98-117). The leopard also bears special significance for the Luntu and many of their neighbors. Bogaerts (1936:218-19) thus writes that the Kasai peoples share the belief that some humans can transform themselves into leopards, a theme that is quite widespread among African Bantu speakers (see also Roberts 1995a:98-102). When a hunter kills a leopard, special rituals must be performed. The animal's carcass is treated in a way that is normally reserved for a chief and is dressed with chief's insignia. While singing songs that accompany a chief's investiture, the men who carry the dead animal to the village in a hammock must protect themselves through all kinds of magical objects. The animal's meat is divided among a small group of men and the rest of the carcass is buried in utmost secrecy, usually somewhere near a crossroads outside the village (Bogaerts 1936:212-16). (4)

While among many Kasai peoples only the most important chiefs are allowed to wear a leopard skin, among the Luntu this privilege is also bestowed upon the brothers of such high chiefs. After undergoing a complex investiture ritual, the leopard skin-bearers become members of a society called Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama. Leopard societies or associations such as the Luntu's are rather unusual in the Congo. (5) The leopard societies of various peoples in the border region between Nigeria and Cameroon especially enjoy some fame because of their associated masks (see, for example, Ottenberg and Knudsen 1985).

Fulfilling a variety of social, political, and religious tasks, the Luntu's leopard society also functions as patron and "manager" of a number of masks. It is mainly thanks to Ndaya's unpublished thesis (1975-76)--which draws primarily upon oral data gathered in the early 1970s in the administrative units (collectivites) of Mashala, Lubudi, and Kunduyi--that we are relatively well informed about this leopard society. Her thesis contains little information about masks but does include an interesting black-and-white field photograph in which two Chikwanga maskers are flanked by male authorities. Drawing from Ndaya's thesis (1975-76:2044, 54-58), I will now look more closely at the structure of the Luntu leopard society and investiture in its highest grade and discuss the death and burial of a society member. It is regrettable that Ndaya's invaluable work has never been made available to a larger audience. In fact, there are still many other unpublished theses on anthropological, historical, and art-historical subjects written by students of the former Universite Nationale du Zaire in the 1970s and 1980s that deserve a broad readership.

The Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama is especially influential among the Beena Nganza and the Bakwa Ngula, two Luntu subgroups in the vicinity of Mashala. It serves primarily as guardian of morals and tradition, while also functioning as peacekeeper and helping to maintain order and harmony. The society is further expected to protect the community against natural and supernatural threats. Finally, it possesses judicial and constitutional powers. The society members, generally called bakoke (sg. mukoke), also pursue purely material goals. For example, their paid intervention is requested when, during a conflict-settlement, no one wants to confess, in the case of misfortune or bad luck, such as repeatedly unsuccessful hunts, a society member will use the leopard skin to curse the suspected wrongdoer and to bless the victim. (6) And when lightning causes damage to the village or one of its inhabitants, the leopard skin will be used in a ritual called dicipa ne ciseba cya nkashaama.

The society is hierarchically organized. The chief whose body is smeared with white kaolin, or lupemba, constitutes the lowest level of the hierarchy, while the chief "who has counted the stars" (mukalenga mubala mutooto) stands at the society's summit. In between these two titles stands the owner of the leopard's skin and teeth. The bakoke, who all have their proper task, gather only in very special circumstances, such as initiations of neophytes and disputes between subgroups. The bakoke distinguish themselves by their insignia and dress: a leopard skin, a necklace of leopard teeth and glass beads, a red loincloth of Kuba origin decorated with cowries and beads, and a little hat crowned by red parrot feathers. They also wear bracelets and ankle-rings of cowries and beads. They carry a spear (difuma) and a flywhisk made of ram hair (bupungu). The wealthiest bakoke have the privilege to wear a beaded false beard (mwedi) and are therefore granted the honorary title Iwabikuku. They appear in full dress on special occasions such as the investiture of a new society member, the mourning in honor of a deceased member or chief, or the visit of an administrative or religious authority. The bakoke must observe a number of rules and are expected to sacrifice a chicken near the ancestral altar (majamu) at each new moon. (7)

Membership in the society is usually inherited by a son from his father but sometimes is acquired through purchase. Occasionally a diviner--most likely one who is initiated into the society--determines that a dead member is being reincarnated in another man, who thus automatically becomes the successor of the deceased. This is always announced by a trial or calamity to which initiation into the leopard society is the only remedy. However, a member thus chosen can never attain the highest level of mukalenga mubaala mutooto. No matter how he becomes a member, the candidate must always possess the necessary riches and show an exceptional generosity. The actual initiation is performed by a former society member, and old chiefs from the surrounding villages attend as guests of honor. In order to protect the candidate from negative influences, they will apply chalk to his right arm and shoulders. Another of their responsibilities is to erect the majamu altar in front of the candidate's house.

Before attaining the highest level of the society, the candidate shares a festive meal with those members who have previously been initiated into this grade. This meal is followed by a seclusion of up to one month and ends with the appearance of the new moon. During his retreat, the candidate is accompanied by his first wife and by a man who is responsible for his instruction. Sometimes he is also assisted by an adjunct who will later represent him during absences. Together with his companions, the candidate is secluded in a fenced-in space that he is not allowed to leave. He must observe a number of food restrictions and practice complete sexual abstinence (the latter requirement also followed by the other men in the village). The new moon signals that the actual initiation into the grade is near, which will be followed by dances and festivities.

On the day of the initiation, the candidate is dressed with the costume and insignia proper to a chief. In the company of his initiator, his wife, his adjunct, some fellow society members, and a number of villagers, the candidate visits a grove near the village, where a goat is sacrificed to indicate that the novice is now capable of drawing secret powers from the forest. After another communal meal, he addresses his ancestors and asks for their continuing support and protection. Thereupon, he is carried on the shoulders of members of the Bakwa Maayi or Baana ba Tshilumba wa Lumanga lineages, and his triumphant appearance is greeted with songs of joy and hymns of praise. (8) He is then raised onto the roof of his first wife's house in order to "count the stars." A gunshot precedes a final address to his ancestors and self-glorifying songs. The newly invested mukalenga mubala mutooto then places himself on a leopard skin that is spread out next to his majamu altar and announces his "power names" and his political agenda. He thereafter invites his instructor to dance with him. Finally, upon another gunshot, after presenting him with gifts, the assembled villagers join the two in their performance.

When the celebrations come to an end, the costume and accessories of the new chief are secretly stored in a chest, which is kept in the house of his first wife. A chicken sacrifice ensures that the woman will transport the chest to a safe place in case of an emergency. That same day, the eldest villager takes up sexual relations with his wife again, and his example is quickly followed by the other men of the village. A few days later, the new chief will visit his maternal uncles, in-laws, friends, and fellow society members in order to gain back the expenses he incurred to finance his promotion. Upon their initiation into this highest grade, certain titleholders in the vicinity of Mashala always appear in the company of a masked individual. (9)

Paralleling the initiation ritual, the death of a society member also is accompanied by an elaborate ritual and many prohibitions. The bakoke are invited to embalm and bury the corpse of their deceased fellow. Goats are sacrificed, and the deceased is dressed in his ceremonial garment and displayed in the front of his house for no longer than twenty-four hours. Then the corpse is actually put into the grave. To prevent evildoers from using body parts of the deceased to fabricate negative magical medicines, his corpse is enveloped in a white shroud and transported at night to a distant place. The grave generally is located in a riverbed or somewhere deep in the forest. A small house with a thatched roof constructed in the grave pit contains a hammock to hold the body.

Mourning of the dead must wait until the appearance of a new moon. Meanwhile, the heir of the deceased resides in a secret place while the others spend the night-watch in the open air. Once the new moon appears, the heir climbs onto the roof of his house and proclaims the power names of the deceased. If the latter responds to the calls of his heir, the actual mourning can begin. The lineage members will remain in seclusion in a special "house of mourning" for two to three months, during which time they must avoid heavy physical effort and sexual intercourse.

The mourning period for a member of the highest rank in the leopard society concludes with a kind of procession. The same happens when a political chief dies. Under the direction of the heir, all the female lineage members go and seek for the "trace of the chief." For this occasion, their breasts are uncovered and their bodies sprinkled with white and black dots; they wear a long loincloth around the waist and carry a machete, stick, or branch. Dancing to the rhythm of a drum and without uttering a word, the procession visits those places where the deceased used to dwell--starting a new dance step as they encounter each new "trace." When this procession is completed, the group returns to the house of mourning for a collective wailing in the company of the mourning family's friends and relatives. A last wake, accompanied by dances and songs and the offering of goats or chickens, is meant to chase away the rambling spirit of the deceased for good. A communal meal concludes the mourning period.

The Ram Mask, Bwadi bwa Chikwanga

Bwadi (pl. maadi) is a generic name for "mask" among several peoples in southern Congo. The phrase "Bwadi bwa Chikwanga" literally means "the mask of Chikwanga." In notebooks relating to his fieldwork of 1955, Albert Maesen recorded some data about the masks he was shown in the Luntu village of Beena Tshimbayi of the Bakwa Ngula subgroup (Maesen 1955, no. 53:5-7, 10bis). He mentions four masks: (Bwadi bwa) Mukenge, (Bwadi bwa) Kabwala(la), (Bwadi bwa) Kalengula, and (Bwadi bwa) Chikwanga. Unfortunately, he made photographs and sketches only of the latter two. From his verbal descriptions, Mukenge and Kabwala(la) appear to be fiber masks which are formally closely related to Kalengula and today are used only for community entertainment. It remains an open question whether a fiber cap mask of possible Luntu origin in the collection of Marc Leo Felix (Fig. 4) can be related to one of the aforementioned names. Howewever, as can be inferred from a mask made ill the 1950s by a carver named Musenga Bongo from the village of Milambo, among the neighboring Konji the name "Kabwalala" was apparently given to a wooden mask of a very different type (Verly 1959:149; for a similar Konji mask in the Felix collection, see Jurgensen and Ohrt 1997:cat. 43).

[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]

Ndaya, who offers no illustrations of the cited masks other than Chikwanga, adds a fifth mask name to the list: (Bwadi bwa) Kalendu. According to Mundaadi Kalawanda, a Luntu immigrant from Mashala and member of the leopard society who informed me about the subject in kananga in 1994, Chikwanga, Kalengula, and Mukenge are the only masks used by adults, being worn at initiations and funerals associated with the Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama society. Three other mask types are meant to be used by children. Aside from Kabwalala (a name which would be a synonym for Kalendu), Mundaadi Kalawanda mentioned a wooden mask called (Bwadi bwa) Cibangu, which would be derived from the Chikwanga type, and a mask type made of paper or cardboard called Lunkanga.

It is interesting to note that Ndaya (1975-76:34) recounts how a mannequin dressed with a Mukenge mask is exhibited when someone has killed a leopard. Although this is not evident from the author's rather vague description of the mask's form, it is beyond doubt that the kinship with the Mukenga mask of the neighboring Kuba goes further than the mask's name seems to indicate. Binkley (1992:287-8) reports that in the course of the initiation ritual of the Ndengesh, so-called Kubaized Mongo and northern neighbors of the Kuba, a model dressed with a Kuba Mukenga mask and the funerary dress of a deceased high title-bearer is exhibited in an isolated space where the heir of his title must reside sometime. This remarkable practice is illustrated by a field photograph made around 1955 (Binkley 1902:Figs. 13-17).

Kalengula masks can be found among different peoples in southern Congo (see also Petridis 2003). As a rule, the name is given to a non-wooden miter-shaped hood crowned by a horizontally placed comb or crest. Most such masks have tubular eves. Two formal categories of non-wooden Kalengula can be distinguished: masks of knotted fibers, which are pulled over the head like a cap (Fig. 5), and masks constructed of twigs that are covered with a piece of woven cloth. A well-known example of this second category of Kalengula is the mask that the Reverend William Burton photographed among the Luba-Katanga in 1936 (Fig. 6). Ethnomusicologist Alan Merriam ordered a similar type of Kalengula from the Songye Bala subgroup of the village of Lupupa Ngye (Merriam 1978:96, Fig. 31; Petridis 2000a:19, Fig. 3). (10)

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

However, a few authors have related the name "Kalengula" to wooden masks that have, formally, little in common with any of these fiber categories. Thus, Himmelheber (1960:406) recorded this name for a striped bixylous mask that he collected among the Songye Kalebwe subgroup in 1939 and which is today kept at the Museum der Kulturen, Basel (Petridis 2000a:19, Fig. 4). Another wooden mask that one could identify as a Kalengula variant of the Songye is presently in an American private collection (Felix 1987:164-5, Fig. 9; see also Petridis 2000a:21, Fig. 5). Marc Leo Felix is the owner of a very peculiar mask of possible Luntu origin that may constitute yet another variant on the Kalengula type (Fig. 7). It consists of a wooden helmet surmounted by a spotted miter-shaped dome, made from animal hide and rimmed with feathers, to which two long antelope horns have been attached (see also Jurgensen and Ohrt 1997:cat. 42).

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Whereas today Kalengula performs solely for the entertainment of the community and seems to fulfill a purely secular role, Chikwanga appears exclusively in connection with the Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama society. It also differs from Kalengula in that it is proper to the Luntu and does not exist among other peoples. Apparently, it is produced only by carvers from the Bakwa Ngula subgroup of the villages of Beena Tshimbayi and Bakwa Tshanji, both in the vicinity of Mashala. As mentioned earlier, the number of Chikwanga masks in Western collections is in any case very limited. The example that was shown to Albert Maesen in Beena Tshimbayi in 1955 was said to be carved from wood of the difudu tree, a species of Vitex (Rik Ceyssens, personal communication, June 30, 2000). However, wood analyses indicate that the mask now at the de Young Museum was carved from Ricinodendron africanum or R. rautanenii. The mask of Beena Tshimbayi was decorated with tufts of ram's hair in small holes and topped with a bunch of feathers of the bateleur eagle (Theratopius ecaudatus), which is called mpunge cikole in Chiluba (Ceyssens and Van De Koppel 1988:17). It had been carved by a man of the same village, who had died by the time of Maesen's visit.

According to Ndaya (1975-76:34), Chikwanga masks are inherited. As a sign of his courage, the heir must gather unspecified human "ingredients" of an elder man. Mundaadi Kalawanda also confirmed that the killing of a man is a prerequisite to wear a Chikwanga mask. The masker announces the arrival of the chief and serves as a peacekeeper. During his performance he holds a double-edged sword. The mask's name is derived from the verb kukaanga, meaning "inspire fear, scare." The dancer overcomes his shyness by drinking alcohol or smoking hemp. As a consequence, he sometimes loses self-control and may wound or even kill an audience member. Some informants say that in order to excite the dancer a musosonkodi ant is placed in his nostrils. The bundle of magical medicines which the dancer conceals in his armpit is believed to deflect assaults of his sword.

The Chikwanga mask's most striking formal feature is the curbed horns carved on either side of the mask's face. As Maesen (1955, no. 53:5) rightfully remarked, these horns imitate those of a ram, nsenguya cimpanga. It is interesting to note that a small black ram with thick backward curbed horns in the British Museum, London (BM [NH] 1980.2624), known as the "Baluba ram," was collected by Emil Torday or one of his co-travelers in 1909 in the town of Lwebo along the Luluwa River in present-day West Kasai province (Paula Jenkins, personal communication, February 21, 2002; see Epstein 1971, vol. 2:51 and Fig. 66). The ram's name, cimpanga, is actually one of the many "power names" proper to chiefs among the Luntu. Bogaerts (1937:186) has written that men who carry such names believe they are important, powerful, and courageous and employ these names to frighten off potential rivals. Kabuta (1995:33-8) addresses the symbolism of the ram as it is expressed in certain Luba-Lubilanji devices. As a rule, the animal incarnates power and courage, but sometimes also is associated with supernatural entities such as God. Among many African peoples, the ram is related to cosmology in general and to the sun in particular.

Although Roberts (1995a:35) indicates that the representation of sheep and especially rams is quite common in the visual arts of sub-Saharan Africa, masks with carved ram's horns are extremely rare in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. (11) The depiction of ram's horns is quite common among the Kuba, where sheep are seen as a royal prerogative. Vansina (1978:143, 173) writes that the king in matoon villages used to own two or three flocks of sheep. Like all other novelties in Kubaland, according to Mack (1995:274) sheep are apparently associated with the king's inventiveness. Forceful, dominant, and fertile, the ram is also a visual metaphor of kingship. In Kuba art, ram's horns are represented on many beaded objects, but also on wooden cups, pipe bowls, and sometimes even on masks (Binkley 1995:343-4). The cephalomorphic pipe of alleged Kuba origin at the Musee de Louvain-la-Neuve (Fig. 8), which bears a striking resemblance to the Chikwanga mask type, should most probably be attributed to the Luntu instead.

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

A so-called Luba mask at the British Museum in London (Fig. 9), which was collected by Emil Torday in a village called Banagasu in 1909, might be an early example of a Luntu Chikwanga mask (see also Mack 1990:20; Roberts 1996b:242, n. 6; Ceyssens 2001:225, n. 21). Another mask that is formally somewhat related to the Luntu Chikwanga type is that at the Museum fur Volkerkunde in Hamburg collected by Leo Frobenius among the Beena Mbaala of the Luba-Shankadi in 1906 (Petridis 2000b:Fig. 8; Ceyssens 2001:Fig. 71). (12) Similar sculptures are kept at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (Herreman and Petridis 1993:170, Fig. 2) and the Seattle Art Museum (Fig. 10). However, in these cases the hornlike extensions seem to imitate a braided headdress rather than ram's horns (Frobenius 1990:48 and Fig. 80; Ceyssens 2001:226). Although Roberts (1995b:352-3) identified a fusion of buffalo with ram horns in the headdress of the famous Luba-Katanga mask of the Royal Museum for Central Africa (Fig. 11), it is more likely that it depicts the same kind of braided hairstyle in combination with a beaded diadem (see also Baeke 1994:108; Ceyssens 2001:226-7, n. 23). It is of course also possible that the shape of this particular hairstyle in turn imitates horns of a ram and/or buffalo. (13)

[FIGURES 9-11 OMITTED]

Many Bantu-speaking peoples in Central Africa associate the ram with thunder or lightning. Thus, among the (western) Lwalu in south-central Congo, the ram is associated with dangerous flashes of lightning and referred to as nzaji wa shibanda nkonko, "le fendeur de fentes" (Ceyssens 1993:366). (14) According to Roberts (1995b:352; 1996b:222), this association is based on the noise of rutting rams as they butt heads. Roberts also notes that, among the Tabwa and related peoples in southeastern Congo, a big black-winged ram or goat called Nkuba is considered to cause thunder and lightning (Roberts 1995a:36; in Chiluba, the term nkuba simply means "lightning" [De Clercq 1937:190]). The Tabwa say that great magicians were capable of capturing a piece of Nkuba, which they then used as an ingredient (kizimba) for protective and vengeful power medicines. To this day, among the Tabwa lightning magic is still associated with chieftainship. (15)

Some primary sources have mentioned the existence of a society of so-called lightning senders known as Beena Nkuba (literally "people of lightning") among the neighboring and closely related Luluwa, Luba-Lubilanji, and Luntu; according to one document, the society was also in vogue among the Salampasu around Lwiza and even in the mixed ethnic area around Tshikapa (see Kabulampuka 1984:23-4). The death of an important Beena Nkuba leader in 1958 resulted in the decline of the society's influence. Although the Beena Nkuba society was first reported by the European colonial authority only in 1936 in the region of Dimbelenge, it would have been introduced in Luluwa country at the end of the nineteenth century (Kabulampuka Kanyinda 1984:14-15, 26). The article by missionary Louis De Brandt (1921:258-60) of the Order of Scheut seems to be the first published mention of the "secret sect." Of the several magical lightning objects described by Kabulampuka Kanyinda (1984:17-19), some had a human or animal shape, but no mention is made of the use of masks in relation to the society's activities. (16)

Amaat Burssens, a former professor of African languages and linguistics at Ghent University who conducted fieldwork among the Luluwa and Luba in 1937, recorded that Kasai peoples believed that some persons had the power to use lightning in order to persecute and kill their enemies and debtors (Burssens 1943:109). They could also be hired by anyone who wished to eliminate an opponent. Marcel Peeters, a Scheut missionary who was active in the village of Bunkonde (formerly Hemptinne-Saint-Benoit) in the early 1940s, discusses the Beena Nkuba society among several Luluwa subgroups in an unpublished document now in the archives of the Tervuren Museum (see also Kabulampuka Kanyinda 1984:21-2). He writes that in former times, powerful Luluwa chiefs were assisted by members of this society and called in their help in order to eliminate rebellious individuals or rioters (Peeters 1946:1). A distinction was made between the small and the large Bwanga bwa Nkuba (lightning medicine; as is commonly known, the term bwanga is used by different Central African peoples and is by definition the manipulation of "medicines" for positive or negative purposes.) It was believed that while both forms had negative and offensive powers, only those who possessed a large Bwanga bwa Nkuba could actually kill someone. In Peeters's day, the main task of the society was to execute insolvent debtors, but according to the author the society's rites and songs pointed to the existence of a lightning or rainbow cult. However, it is unclear if the Beena Nkuba society had anything to do with the Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama society, and nothing is known about the possible symbolism of the ram in connection with the Beena Nkuba.

In order to gain insight into the Chikwanga mask's iconography and function, the symbolism of the ram among the Luntu should be further investigated. The relationship between the Bwadi bwa Chikwanga ram mask and the Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama leopard society also deserves further attention, as does the link between the leopard and the ram and both animals' reference to ideas of leadership. More research is also needed on lightning magic and its possible association with leadership and the Bukalenga bwa Nkashaama leopard society. Finally, many questions remain with regard to the analogies between the Luntu's leopard society, that of the (Northern) Bindi of northern West Kasai Province, and related societies of a number of Mongo peoples of the Equatorial Province. Since the leopard society is said to be still active around the village of Mashala and it is not impossible that Chikwanga and other mask types are still in use, it would be worthwhile to attempt long-term field research in order to gain better understanding of the Luntu and their arts.

[This article was accepted for publication in June 2004.]

Based on research conducted in the margin of my doctoral thesis on Luluwa art, this article is an adapted and expanded version of a paper given at a session of the Belgian Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences in Brussels on December 14, 1999, and published in Dutch in the academy's journal (Petridis 2000b). I am grateful to Rik Ceyssens, John Jacobs, Pierre Petit, and Allen Roberts for their keen questions and insightful comments on an earlier draft. I also wish to thank the individuals and institutions that have given me permission to reproduce objects and photographs from their collections. My interest in Luntu art was triggered when, during field trips in 1994 and 1996, I gathered some original information on the subject among Luntu immigrants in Kananga and among the Luntu's related Konji (or Nkoshi) neighbors.

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(1.) One of the Chikwanga masks at the Institut des Musees Nationaux du Congo in Kinshasa was acquired in Kananga in 1973 by the Belgian art historian and anthropologist Rik Ceyssens, who recorded that the mask was called Kamwanga. Elsewhere, I have already expressed nay doubts about Felix's identification of a helmet mask at the Royal Museum for Central Africa as a Luntu Chikwanga mask (Felix 1987:92-3, Fig. 2; Petridis 1995:cat. 107).

(2.) For more details on the life and work of Albert Maesen (1915-1992), former head of the department of cultural anthropology and director ad interim of the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, see especially Van Geluwe and de Strycker 1994 and Jacobs 1997.

(3.) The Luntu are divided into a number of subgroups known as bisa or bisamba (sg. cisa or cisamba). They recognize a common ancestor by the name of Luntu. Although he considers the Konji as belonging to the Luntu, Bogaerts (1951:573) distinguishes between as many as thirty-two bisa, which he groups in five large branches. A cisamba or cisa is built up of different bifuku (sg. cifuku); members of the same cifuku are strictly forbidden to intermarry. The bifuku themselves consist of a number of mbelo (lineages). According to Brausch (1942:235), the first political entities appear at the level of the cifuku but it is at the ditunga level that the real political power is vested. Although the ditunga usually comprises different bisamba, as a rule the term ditunga connotes a political body whereas cisamba refers to a social entity. Bogaerts (1951:572) considers the chiefs of the mbelo, who are generally called mwena mpala, to be some sort of subchiefs of the mfumu or chief of the cisa or cisamba. This mfumu is always backed by a council of elders.

(4.) Fourche and Morlighem (1937:360-62) report on the cipangu cya bukalenga ritual performed by the Luluwa and the Luntu to honor the ancestral spirits of authorities (see also Petridis 1999a:124). On this occasion, two tree species are planted, known in the vernacular as mulemba and mumbu, dedicated to the male and female ancestors, respectively. Between the two tree trunks an offering table is erected, onto which is placed the carcass of a killed leopard. Often, this ritual is prescribed by a diviner when a family member of the chief is struck by sterility or illness.

(5.) Among the Luluwa, the title mukalenga wa nkashaama merely points to the highest grade of chieftainship and is not related to a society (Petridis 1999b:cat. 147). There are parallels, however, in aspects of the investiture and the rituals that accompany the death of the bearers of this title. On the other hand, the Luntu's leopard society appears to be very similar to a little-known leopard society prevalent among the (Northern) Bindi (or Babindi ba ngusu) who live in and around the village of Mwetshi (Rik Ceyssens, personal communication, June 30, 2000). Moreover, the Bindi's leopard society members would also make use of a type of wooden helmet mask that is akin to the Luntu's Bwadi bwa Chikwanga (Cornet 1975:cat. 74, 1978:cat. 141). It also closely resembles the society of the "masters of the forest" (nkum'okunda) of some Mongo peoples of the Equatorial Province (de Heusch 1954, 1990, 1995; Jacobs 1955). However, even though our knowledge remains rather superficial, these societies seem to be quite different from fear-inflicting organizations like the infamous Anyota "sect" of northern Congo (see Lindskog 1954; Joset 1955; see also Roberts 1986, 1996a).

(6.) Bogaerts (1936:224-5) also gives a detailed description of this "leopard test." I myself witnessed a similar ritual in the Konji village of Tshefu in 1996, when several chiefs of neighboring villages assembled in order to determine who was responsible for a theft.

(7.) The term majamu is one of a number of names of the ancestral altar among the Luba Kasai peoples. Among the Luluwa, who say macyamu or mashambu, it most often takes the shape of a miniature house with a saddle roof (Petridis 1999a:120). The Luntu always build it above a "chief's hearth" (kapya ka cyota), while a small mumbu tree is planted next to it. Maesen (1955, no. 53:7-9), who saw the establishment of such a majamu altar in the Luntu village of Beena Tshimbayi, emphasizes that it is the exclusive right of the Bakwa Mayi subgroup to do so and that they alone are allowed to take part in the initiation of a chief (see also Ndaya 1975-76:29).

(8.) Initiates are often carried on the shoulders in the context of rites of passage among many peoples in Central Africa. This action is also represented in the visual arts of a number of peoples, such as among the Luba-Katanga and related peoples in southeastern Congo (Roberts 1996b:214-15). A rare example of a Luluwa figure of a chief being carried on another man's shoulders is kept at the Museum fur Volkerkunde, Leipzig (no. 4876).

(9.) Bogaerts (1936:222) writes that while the investiture ritual differs from group to group, its core is the same everywhere and always involves the distribution of goods and money and the organization of dance feasts and dinner parties. In many respects, this ritual relates to the chief's initiation of the neighboring Luhiwa, especially in the act of "counting the stars" (Denolf 1954:56-61, 352-5; MacLean 1962:135-46).

(10.) Maesen (1955, no. 52:102-3) also made a sketch of a non-wooden miter-shaped mask called Bwadi bwa Nkashaama in the Konji village of Tshiloolo in 1955. However, he is the only author to mention this mask name, which literally means the "mask of the leopard," and the leopard society does not seem to exist among the Konji. I witnessed a mask performance in the Konji village of Tshefu in 1996, when an adolescent wearing a similar Kalengula-like hood danced on stilts in order to entertain the community (Petridis 2000a:23 Fig. 12).

(11.) Carvings of ram heads on Bini chiefs' altars and Igbo ikenga figures are examples of the presence of ram imagery in sub-Saharan visual arts (Roberts 1995a:35-38).

(12.) The Beena Mbaala inhabit the villages of Mpongo, Kadilu, and Kabamba-Mbale and are sometimes also called Belande or Beena Budja. However, they themselves reject these other ethnic names and do not wish to be grouped with the Luba-Shankadi either (Ceyssens 1990:n. 45, 2001:225).

(13.) According to Roberts (1995b:351-52), both ram and buffalo would be related to the culture hero Mbidi Kiluwe, whose legends underlie a refined court culture among the Tabwa, Luba, and other Bantu-speaking peoples (see also note 14). Inspired by de Heusch (1991:113), who recognized the ambivalence that governs Bantu leaders' actions, Roberts offers the hypothesis that the Tervuren Museum's horned Luba mask has been made and used to represent Mbidi Kiluwe (see also Roberts 1996b:222-24).

(14.) The association between ram and thunder or lightning is also prevalent in West Africa. Among the best-known examples are the Yoruba, among whom the thunder god Shango is represented in the shape of a ram mask, and the Fon of the old Dahomey empire, where the god of lightning is a ram (Roberts 1995a:35-38).

(15.) The ability to kill people through lightning is a current theme in beliefs about sorcery and witchcraft among many Central African peoples. Roberts (1995a:36) believes there is a structural relationship between Nkuba and the culture hero Mbidi Kiluwe. In the epic on Luba sacred kingship, Mbidi Kiluwe would be described as the "Hunter," "Thunder," or "Winged Ram," and his son Kalala Ilunga as "Lightning" (Roberts 1995b:352, 1996b:222). It should be stressed, however, that more often the Luba relate lightning to a goat rather than to a ram (Colle 1913:719; Tempels 1936:133, 138; Van Avermaet and Mbuya 1954:296, s.v. "n-kuba," 810, s.v. "n-zaji").

(16.) The description of the Beena Nkuba's main power object, called mutu wa nkuba, meaning "head of lightning," recalls a peculiar object at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1979.206.229). Earlier, based on data gathered by the administrator who field-collected the object, I hypothetically related a female Luluwa figure at the Royal Museum for Central Africa to this "society of lightning senders" (Petridis 1995:cat. 109). The most noticeable of theft magical attributes was the mukaya wa nkuba, an apron made of the skin of a mukenge (Egyptian mongoose, Herpestes ichneumon) or a mwidi (marsh mongoose, Atilax paludinosus) to which all kinds of defensive and offensive charms were attached. Examples collected by the American anthropologist Frederick Starr among the Luba around Lwebo, the Northern Kete, and/or the Luluwa in 1906 are now at the American Museum of Natural History, New York (Petridis 2000b:Fig. 11).