Homage to Dr. Alphonse Lema Gwete (d. 2004).

In my dairy of January 1990 I noted down: "I met with Lema Gwete, the chief director of the IMNZ [Institut des Musees Nationaux de Zaire], with his wife mama Valentine Mbembo Nsanga and with some of his seven children at his home in Kinshasa. I left with the impression of an imposing person in grey abacos, somewhat timid, but enthusiastic about my idea to study the traditional culture and art of the Nkanu." He himself was already interested in doing fieldwork among this people living in the frontier area of Lower-Congo and Angola. Lema Gwete spent almost a month at Kimvula during the time I was in the field and for me began a very interesting period wherein I learned "the tricks of the trade."

Afterwards we kept contact; but once he had to leave his job at the IMNZ in 1997 (as a result of the change of leadership from Mobutu to Kabila) it became difficult to keep in correspondence with him.

It was almost accidentally that I learned of his death at the beginning of September 2004 from a fatal heart attack in the streets of Kinshasa. Professor Joseph Ibongo, current deputy of the general director of the IMNC (Institut des Musees Nationaux de Congo) of Kinshasa, was willing to provide me a detailed biography of his predecessor.

Alphonse Lema Gwete was born in the mid-1940s at Kilonga (Nkolo) in Lower Congo, son of Sir Ntoni Kodia and Madame Divayika Nzakitwadi. He received his primary and, from 1956-1962, secondary education at the missionary schools at Kimpese (of the Fathers Redemptorists) and Tumba (of the Brothers of the Christian Schools). He studied African cultural anthropology at the University of Lovanium (Kinshasa) and in 1967 he became assistant to Professor Nicaise at this university in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Economy. Afterwards he did fieldwork among the Teke as preparation of his PhD thesis, "La statuaire dans la societe Teke. Morphologie et contexte culture." In 1978, this work earned him the title of Doctor in the History of Art and Archaeology at the University of Louvain (Belgium), under the promotership of Albert Maesen.

He held a variety of academic positions: professor at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Kinshasa (1968-2004) and at the University of Lubumbashi (1975-1981), guest professor at the Institut National des Arts (1979) and at the Great Seminar of Mayidi at the invitation of UNESCO (1974, 1975, and 1984).

He began work at the IMNZ in 1971, first as assistant conservator (1971-76), then as adjunct conservator (1976-82); in 1982 he was appointed conservator. From 1976 to 1984 he was director of research. In 1985 he became deputy of the general director and in 1987 he succeeded Brother Joseph Cornet as general director, a post he held until 1997. In 2002 he was reinstalled at the IMNC, first as scientific counselor and then, in 2004, again as deputy of the general director.

In addition to his work among the Bateke and the Bankanu, he also spent some time among the Bambunda, the Bawoyo, and the Basongye. This field research as well as the study of written documents led to publications in books, journals, and catalogues, including Sura Dji, visages et racines du Zaire (Musee les Arts Decoratifs, Paris, 1982); Kunst aus Zaire. Masken und Plastiken aus der Nationalsammlung IMNZ (Bremen, 1980); and L'art et pouvoir dans les societe traditionnelles (Kinshasa, 1986), as well as "An introduction to the Nkanu- and Mbeeko-masks," in Face of the Spirits (ed. Frank Herreman and Constantine Petridis, Antwerp, 1993) and his contribution to the catalogue Bateke: Peintres et sculpteurs d'Afrique Centrale (Paris, 1998).

The year 2004 shall be remembered in the annals of the IMNC as a dark year: first Father Joseph Cornet left us, now Alphonse Lema Gwete. I think that it is appropriate to end this homage to Lema Gwete with the words of the man who follows in his footsteps, Professor Joseph Ibongo: "Nous savons que nous n'oublierons jamais la chaleur humaine du Professeur Lema, son humour deconcertant continuera a nous manquer, la subtilite de son intelligence ne s'effacera jamais. Son ecriture a la calligraphie chere aux Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes, ces pedagogues modules, restera soigneusement conservees dans les archives de l'Institut des Musees Nationaux du Congo."