Ancestor Statue - Buyu - Boyo - Congo - 77cm

Beautiful Buyu statue - Congo. This effigy of a royal ancestor, adorned with decorative motifs, was placed alongside a female statuette, sheltered in a small funerary hut. Dense, heavy wood with a brown patina. 77 cm high. Provenance: collected in the 1950s by a man named Kibabi and sold in the 1970s to a Belgian painter, then passed down through the family. The Boyo people are believed to be of Luba descent, through an ancestor who migrated with her brothers. Two migratory waves brought together the Bembe, Lega, Buyu (or Boyo), Binji, and Bangubangu within the same territories. The tribal traditions of the Bembe and Boyo are relatively similar: they venerate nature spirits, specifically water spirits among the Boyo, but also heroic ancestors, whose will they seek to understand through divination rites.