"Ntadi Kunya". Identified with a "traditional lawyer" by the best experts, this figure apparently describes a high dignitary of the court of the Kongo kingdom. Among his attributes, he wears the elongated NKUNZA cap reserved for notables, a command baton and a raffia tissue with a waist and a beaded necklace whose value was one slave each. Symbolically, the left hand anchored at the waist holds the adversary to the ground while the right hand rises and takes the scepter to construct an unequivocal gesture of authority. A gesture that restores the course of justice and blocks the adversary while he takes the floor to definitively settle the dispute.
Robert Verly, head of the ethnographic mission commissioned by the Brussels art and history museums, tells us another interpretation of the object in the course of therapeutic rituals. In 1955, he received reports from the elders of the place who identified this figure by the name of kunya to define a very effective magical force with healing powers that the healer uses through a very precise ritual formula. Before Kunya the ritual specialist implored: "Give me the staff that executes men" to which the spirit of Kunya responded sensibly "after making the offering you will receive the staff". This ritual released the necessary power into the hands of the healer to restore health. 48cm high
DECORATIVE ARTS
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