Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples.

Edited by Manuel Jordan Prestel-Verlag, Munich, London, and New York, 1998. 192 pp., 100 color & 124 b/w illustrations, map, bibliography. $65 hardcover, $36 softcover.

This collective volume appeared in conjunction with a traveling exhibition conceived by the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, and its then Curator of the Arts of Africa and the Americas, Manuel Jordan. (1) The exhibition was subsequently held at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (see Bourgeois 2000). Greatly appreciated by lovers of African art, Chokwe art has been well represented in many exhibitions. In 1988 the Musee Dapper in Paris devoted a monographic exhibition to the subject; it was accompanied by a modest catalogue containing short articles by the director of the Fondation Dapper, Christiane Falgayrettes, and by the Belgian scholars Anne Leurquin, Luc de Heusch, and the late Marie-Louise Bastin (Falgayrettes 1988). It is mainly thanks to the work of Bastin (1918-2000), who taught African art history at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles, that Chokwe art is relatively well known. Appropriately, Bastin was invited by Jordan to contribute an introductory essay to his Chokwe catalogue in which she offers a "panoramic overview of Chokwe arts" (p. 6), and Jordan dedicated his Chokwe exhibition and catalogue to the woman whose scholarship has been a source of inspiration for generations of art scholars.

As mentioned in the editor's preface, the exclamation mark in the title "denotes the pride and excitement a Chokwe person verbalizes when expressing his or her ethnic identity" (p. 8). Chokwe! focuses on male and female initiation institutions in which the various art forms of Chokwe and related peoples play a dominant role. The catalogue's thematic approach is based on the Ph.D. dissertation of Elisabeth Cameron, who served as a consultant for the exhibition and also contributed an essay to Chokwe! (p. 6). The central theme of initiation is divided into three subthemes, which are reflected in the three sections mentioned on the contents page. The first section, "Royal Arts," dwells on the subtheme of "Role Models," i.e., "traditional and contemporary models of success, accomplishment, and responsibility in society." The second section, "Initiation Arts," constitutes the core of the exhibition and its catalogue. (2) It considers the theme of "Potential Fathers and Mothers," focusing on "the institution of initiation and the transitions boys and girls undergo to acquire privileged knowledge and prepare for adult life." The theme of "Fulfilled Adults," which is treated in the final section, "Art and Life," sheds light on professions and activities pursued in the adult lives of the peoples under discussion. These three themes are developed in seven essays by scholars who include the art historians Jordan, Bastin, Cameron, and Niangi Batulukisi, and the anthropologists Manuela Palmeirim, Sonia Silva, and Boris Wastiau. The thematic essay sections are each followed by a catalogue section that contains succinct entries by Jordan on all the exhibited objects, many of which are beautifully illustrated in full color.

With the exception of Marie-Louise Bastin, the authors relied on recently conducted fieldwork related to their respective doctoral dissertations. Most of them had published little or nothing prior to their collaboration on this project. As a result, Chokwe! provides valuable new research and interpretations. Ironically, however, except for Bastin, the contributors to the catalogue worked mainly on the edges of the Chokwe region proper and not among the Chokwe themselves. Therefore, the essays deal more with the "related peoples" referred to in the subtitle, while the Chokwe as such are the main focus of the catalogue sections. Nevertheless, in the preface Jordan states that the use of the name Chokwe in the title is justified "because the Chokwe were the most influential in creating art styles and diffusing them ... through a vast portion of central Africa" (p. 8). Still, the inclusion in this volume of an article on the little-studied art of the Holo people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo seems odd, since nowhere is their relationship with the Chokwe made convincingly clear, and their culture appears to have more in common with that of the Yaka and the Suku. Conversely, other peoples such as the Ovimbundu, the Lozi, and the Mbunda, whose kinship with the Chokwe has been firmly established by firsthand observation, are not properly discussed in any of the essays, even though their arts are represented in the different catalogue sections.

In the opening article of the first essay section, "Chokwe Arts: Wealth of Symbolism and Aesthetic Expression," Marie-Louise Bastin first dwells on what is considered to be the "oldest known sculpture from the Bantu region": a zoomorphic wooden sculpture which she identifies as a "ritual bowl" (p. 13). After shedding light on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European accounts from the region, she discusses the oral history of the foundation of the Lunda Empire, which is the cornerstone of the Chokwe worldview and has given shape to some courtly art forms. She then proceeds to give an overview of "Chokwe types of artistic expression" and a brief description of the different Chokwe stylistic schools, which she distinguishes in the art forms of the courts of aristocrats and rulers.

In "The King's Crowns: Hierarchy in the Malting Among the Aruwund," Manuela Palmeirim explores how the regalia of Ruwund dignitaries reflect both hierarchical and egalitarian principles as parts of the Ruwund state ideology. Against the background of the foundation myth of the Ruwund kingship, she demonstrates that opposing ideological principles, which juxtapose indigenous ancestral power and a newly introduced political order, underlie the organization of the kingdom. Palmeirim then discusses different regalia that codify and convey hierarchical positions. After devoting special attention to the form and significance of various types of crowns, she emphasizes that the use of insignia allows for a continuous negotiation of status and rank.

The second essay section, on "Potential Fathers and Mothers," which constitutes the core of the exhibition and its catalogue, starts with an article by Jordan titled "Engaging the Ancestors: Makishi Masquerades and the Transmission of Knowledge Among Chokwe and Related Peoples." This chapter explores the role of some masked characters, called makishi, which represent the spirits of deceased individuals and transmit cultural knowledge in the context of the male initiation known as mukanda. Through their makishi masquerades, Chokwe and related peoples engage their ancestors to provide assistance, protection, and education. In his overview of the vast repertoire of male, female, and other masked characters, Jordan devotes careful attention to the complexities of ethnicity and regional dynamics, and offers new interpretations in the identification of certain characters. Thus, contrary to earlier descriptions by Bastin and others, on the basis of information gathered from Chokwe assistants in Zambia, the Chihongo masquerader is described here as a royal or chiefly character (p. 71).

In her essay, "Potential and Fulfilled Woman: Initiations, Sculpture, and Masquerades in Kabompo District, Zambia," Elisabeth Cameron demonstrates how men's and women's initiation ceremonies and the associated art forms work together in teaching and reinforcing the ideal of the mother. Aside from shedding light on both types of initiation, this essay also considers how male sculptors portray the female ideal and how women themselves control this process. In discussing the mukanda men's initiation, Cameron states that "[w]hile women's initiations honor potential motherhood, men's initiations ... honor both the potential father ... and the fulfilled woman" (p. 81). For Lunda and Luvale women, the main purpose of makishi masquerades that appear in the mukanda is to honor and make happy the initiates' mothers.

The last chapter of the second section, "Ngidi and Mukanda Initiation Rites: Forces of Social Cohesion among the Holo," by Niangi Batulukisi, explores female and male initiation institutions among the Holo people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and how these institutions contribute to social cohesion. After discussing different facets of male and female initiations, the author also sheds light on the use of masks in the context of the male mukanda, both during the seclusion period and at the concluding graduation festivities. Unfortunately, most of the listed mask names are not illustrated, and the descriptions do not adequately convey what they actually look like.

The third and last essay section of the volume, dealing with "Fulfilled Adults," is introduced by Boris Wastiau's chapter, "Art, God, and Spirit Possession in the Interpretation of Illness among the Luvale and Related Peoples." Wastiau first examines how the Luvale view what he calls the High God, named Kalunga, and then describes the roles of ancestors and "spirits of affliction" in Luvale cosmology and ritual. After further analyzing how various art forms function in healing performances, he concludes with a brief discussion of how diviners and therapists, through healing, "establish balance and consistency both in the world-view and in practice" (p. 139).

In the final chapter of Chokwe!, "The Birth of a Divination Basket," Sonia Silva examines the perception and creation of divination baskets among the Luvale and related peoples in northwestern Zambia. By presenting the raw data without scholarly polish, this essay also illuminates the relationship between "primary experience" and "secondary elaboration." Through excerpts from her field diary, Silva recounts her participation in the commissioning of a divination basket for a diviner named Sakutemba from a basketmaker named Pezo. Her research indicates that the divination basket is closely associated with the human body and is considered "a powerful entity endowed with human-like quantities" (p. 141).

In his foreword to the catalogue, Allen Roberts, one of Jordan's mentors at the University of Iowa, states that the structuralist perspective developed by the anthropologist Luc de Heusch, which points to "an aesthetic logic underlying cultural and historical differences" (p. 7), forms a thread linking all the essays in Chokwe!. However, as is often the case with collective publications, the essays united in the present volume are unequal in depth and quality. And while some essays explicitly refer to objects reproduced in the catalogue sections, others show little or no connection with the exhibition.

It is regrettable that its authors overlooked the scholarly work on the Chokwe of southern Congo by Belgian missionaries of the Order of Saint Francis ("Minderbroeders"), especially because essayist Manuela Palmeirim conducted her fieldwork among the Aruwund in the same mixed ethnic area in Katanga Province. This neglect can in part be explained by the fact that these missionaries published their research in Dutch (Petridis 2001:5-6). Unfortunately, however, other German- and English-language sources on Chokwe peoples in the Kasai and Bandundu Provinces of the Congo also go unmentioned, such as the writings of Leo Frobenius, Hans Himmelheber, and Daniel Crowley, all of whom have established important field collections. The same can be said of the largely unpublished field research conducted by the late Albert Maesen for the Africa-Museum in Tervuren between 1953 and 1955, which was in principle directly accessible to at least one of the authors, Boris Wastiau, a curator in the Tervuren museum's Department of Cultural Anthropology. In fact, in conjunction with its rich holdings of Chokwe art assembled by Belgian colonial officials such as Gaston de Witte and Jules-Auguste Fourche in the 1930s and '40s, the Tervuren museum holds many more documents on Chokwe art that remain largely unexplored to date.

With the exception of Niangi's contribution, the seven essays are lavishly illustrated with recent field photographs taken by their authors, but the photographs used as frontispieces for the different chapters are all by Jordan. Because there are no captions with these frontispieces, it is rather confusing that an image depicting a Chokwe version of a mask character called Katotola, performing in the vicinity of the Manyinga village in Zambia in 1991, was chosen to introduce Niangi's chapter on the Holo. (3) Following each essay section is a catalogue section in which images of most of the exhibited objects are accompanied by descriptive entries by the editor, curiously enough, the title of each section and the explanation of what the title stands for follow the essays to which they pertain and precede the actual catalogue section. The entries as such are generally concise, offering essential contextual or stylistic background information in just a few lines.

The objects reproduced in the catalogue sections are just stunning, even if not all of them merit the Western qualifier of "masterpiece." As a whole, they provide an extraordinary window on the varied art forms that the Chokwe and related peoples created over at least the past two centuries. One might object that Jordan's selection did not include works from some of the best-documented historical collections of Chokwe and related materials from the museums of Berlin, Lisbon, Neuchatel, or Tervuren, but no one will deny that the objects grouped together testify to the diversity of Chokwe art. Moreover, examples from the cited European collections have been included in previous exhibitions and publications and are consequently quite well known; the present volume shows many unknown objects from private collections, providing ample proof that one's research cannot be limited to well-established public collections. Jordan's selection also encompasses object types that have never before or rarely been published or exhibited, such as the beaded chief's crown and container (cat. 53, 54), the emblem in the form of an antelope horn (cat. 55), the Ngaji mask (cat. 88), the figures representing masked ancestors (cat. 95, 97), the initiation hats (cat. 98, 99), the mask for the mungonge association (cat. 100), and the woman-fish figure (cat. 114).

Despite the few minor criticisms expressed in this review, Chokwe! constitutes an important scholarly addition to our understanding and appreciation of the arts of the Chokwe and related peoples. Drawing on recent fieldwork conducted by a new generation of anthropologists and art historians from the United States, Europe, and Africa, it provides a sensitive and nearly complete picture of one of central Africa's most sophisticated and complex cultural regions. In exploring contemporary practices and beliefs as they were experienced and recorded by the contributors in the early 1990s, the exhibition and its catalogue also put Chokwe art, as it is preserved in public and private collections around the world, in historical perspective. As Frederick Lamp points out in his opening statement in the catalogue (p. 10), in light of the rapid cultural changes affecting the whole African continent, the essays brought together in Chokwe! testify to the continuing need for rigorous and extensive fieldwork to document the backgrounds of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century African art forms.

(1.) Jordan was recently appointed Curator of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.

(2.) Considering the catalogue's central theme of initiation, it is striking that the succinct bibliography in Chokwe! does not list the articles by Marie-Louise Bastin (1990) and Hermann Baumann (1932), which are undoubtedly two of the most extensive and nuanced writings on that subject. Another invaluable publication on Chokwe art to which surprisingly no reference is made is Mesquitela Lima's Os akixi (mascarados) do Nordeste de Angola (1967). Of course, one suspects that these sources are referred to in the contributors' unpublished dissertations.

(3.) This photograph was published with a detailed caption in Jordan's contribution to a book he co-authored with Marc Leo Felix (Jordan 1998:120, fig. IV/28).

References cited

Bastin, Marie-Louise. 1990. "The Initiationsriten mukanda und mungonge der Tshokwe (Angola)," in Mannerbande, Mannerbunde: Zur Rolle des Mannes im Kulturvergleich, eds. Gisela Volger and Karin von Welck, vol. 1, pp. 315-26. Cologne: Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum.

Baumann, Hermann. 1932. "Die Mannbarkeitsfeiern bei den Tsokwe (N.O. Angola; Westafrika) und ihren Nachbarn." Baessler-Archiv 15:1-54.

Bourgeois, Arthur P. 2000. Review of "Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples," African Arts 33, 2:81-82.

Falgayrettes, Christiane (ed.). 1988. Art et mythologie: Figures tshokwe. Paris: Editions Dapper.

Jordan, Manuel. 1998. "Mukanda and Makishi: Male Initiation and the Context for Masks in Zambia," in Makishi Iya Zambia: Mask Characters of the Upper Zambezi Peoples," by Marc Leo Felix and Manuel Jordan, pp. 85-125. Munich: Verlag Fred Jahn.

Lima, Mesquitela. 1967. Os akixi (mascarados) do Nordeste de Angola. Lisbon: Museu do Dundo (Publicacoes Culturais da Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, 70).

Petridis, Constantine. 2001. "Chokwe Masks and Franciscan Missionaries in Sandoa, Belgian Congo, ca. 1948," Anthropos 96:3-28.

CONSTANTINE PETRIDIS is an assistant curator of African art at the Cleveland Museum of Art and an assistant professor of art history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He is the overseas exhibition review editor and a consulting editor of African Arts.