CMA: African Art
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cmaafrican.bsky.social
CMA: African Art
@cmaafrican.bsky.social
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Sharing public domain works from the African Art department of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Automated thanks to @andreitr.bsky.social and @botfrens.bsky.social
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Knife https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.1018
Knife
November 27, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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Half-Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.457
This torso is believed to be carved in the style of the Kusu people, closely related but little-known neighbors of the Luba. In fact, the figure's facial traits and coiffure are characteristic of Luba art. Iron tacks inserted into the lobes of the hairdo indicate that the sculpture was originally empowered with magical and medicinal substances. Thus charged, the figure would have been used in divination and was related to a powerful association known as Bugabo, popular during early colonial times among various peoples in eastern Congo; members specialized in healing, hunting, and fighting crime. Other such sculptures once topped gourds, and some rare complete examples have survived, but this was most likely never the case for this figure.
November 27, 2025 at 1:26 PM
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Helmet Mask https://clevelandart.org/art/2004.84
Combining animal and human traits, this example of a genre of mask called suruku, meaning "hyena," most likely belonged to the Korè, one of six power associations that the Malinke would have adopted from their Bamana neighbors. The Korè is concerned with the circumcision and initiation of male youths into adulthood. The mask probably served as one of the symbols of the different Korè classes.
November 27, 2025 at 8:15 AM
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Gold Weight: Drum with Jaws of Defeated Enemies https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.266
The wealth and power of the Asante kingdom was derived primarily from its massive gold resources. Since at least 1600, small weights in brass and bronze were used to weight gold dust and nuggets. The royal court had the most elaborate store of weights, while commoners often had about a dozen. Their imagery falls into two broad cateogries: geometric and representational. The latter often refers to proverbs, which used judiciously, marked a wise person.
November 26, 2025 at 12:56 PM
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Staff of Office https://clevelandart.org/art/2004.85
The Luba kingdom flourished from about the 17th century to the late 19th century. The best-known Luba object types relate to ideas of kingship and the kingdom's ceremonial and ritual life. Staffs are among the most important Luba regalia. During the investiture ritual, the new ruler holds the staff when he swears his oath of office. Aside from being a symbol of rank and high office, a staff also serves as a historical document and archive that can be "read" like a sculptural map, memorializing important events, places, and people. The rendering of women points to their political and religious significance in history and society; although Luba rulers were always male, their mothers, wives, and sisters acted as advisors and diplomats behind the scenes. On this particular staff, the Janus heads and female figures probably represent one of the many Luba tutelary spirit pairs. The metal point alludes to the kingdom's stability and durability.
November 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
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Figurine https://clevelandart.org/art/2005.3
The life of Lega men and women is structured around their advancement through the different grades of the Bwami association. Fulfilling political, social, religious, and other roles, the members’ ultimate purpose is the pursuit of wisdom and excellence. Ivory figurines were reserved for members of the two highest Bwami grades, in which the core of the Lega’s moral philosophy is revealed.
November 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM
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Clapper https://clevelandart.org/art/1938.5
This clapper was played by striking the beak of the bird with a metal rod. It is used in a ritual called ugie oro, which commemorates an early 16th-century military victory of King Esigie. This festival illustrates the divine power of the Benin king to protect the kingdom and its inhabitants against natural and supernatural forces. The bird has been identified as a vulture, ibis, hornbill, eagle, or kingfisher.
November 25, 2025 at 11:48 AM
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Figure of a Pair https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.460.1
The Ubangi region's history of successive migrations and assimilations has resulted in numerous exchanges of religious beliefs and ritual practices. Because little research has been conducted in the region, data regarding the production, use, and meaning of Ubangi sculpture are scant. Despite some stylistic traits, including the heart-shaped faces and the male's crested coiffure, this figure pair is unlike any other in the Ubangian corpus. Based on indirect evidence, the pair has been attributed to the little-known Monzombo and is said to represent the culture's primordial couple. However, no other sculptures have been ascribed to the Monzombo, and we lack further details on their art.
November 24, 2025 at 4:02 PM
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Male Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.430
Comparatively speaking, this exceptionally large Teke figure is well preserved: not only does it carry many of its original accouterments and accessories, as well as a crusty and seemingly untouched patina, it also holds a medicine package partly buried in an abdominal cavity. The parcel indicates that the sculpture belonged to the broad and widespread category of power figures labeled by the generic name <em>buti</em>. The figure's size suggests that it stood at the service of a larger group of people and that its powers extended beyond the limits of a village. Its headdress—decorated with coins from the former Belgian Congo under the rule of King Albert I—scarification marks, and beard identify it as representing a chief or another dignitary.
November 24, 2025 at 3:57 PM
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Soul Disk Pendant https://clevelandart.org/art/1944.290
Shared by different Akan and Akan-related peoples, including the Asante and Baule, gold ornaments indicate status and wealth and are worn at public festivals by titleholders, chiefs, and kings. Most pectoral disks are suspended over the chest by a white, pineapple-fiber cord. They are owned by the okra, a young official who purifies the chief’s soul--hence, the name akrafokonmu, meaning "soul-washer’s badges" or "soul disks."
November 24, 2025 at 8:45 AM
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Whistle https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.444
Carved out of ivory or wood in a variety of shapes, Chokwe whistles often bear miniature, stylized renderings of masks. Cikunza, the "patron saint" of the boys' initiation into manhood, is depicted with a pointed extension imitating the horn of a road antelope, symbolizing the fertility spirit. Typically such whistles were used by men during the hunt to communicate with their co-hunters and to call their dogs. They were either worn attached to a string as a necklace or tied to a spear.
November 23, 2025 at 4:18 PM
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Male Figurine https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.434
This human-shaped <em>nkisi</em> in Yombe style—one of the most typical forms a spirit container can take among Kongo speakers in west-central Africa—features an enormous mirror-covered package on its stomach that is remarkably intact, meaning that the figure was not decommissioned before sale or disposal. The cloth bands and knots looped around its neck and down its back and fixed around its legs suggest that it was used to bind agreements or oaths. Most intriguing is the carving of a pangolin or scaly anteater atop the head, which represents leadership and the ability to reconcile social and cosmological contradictions; thus, the figure symbolized mediation of the spirit world and power.
November 23, 2025 at 1:16 PM
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Male Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.432
A typical example of a type of <em>nkisi</em> or spirit container known as <em>nkondi</em> (from the verb <em>konda</em>, "to hunt") this figure once held a spear in its raised arm. The empty stomach cavity, which would have contained the medicinal substances that gave the sculpture particular powers, indicates that the figure may have been discarded before being sold. Each iron nail, screw, and wedge—a combination of both local smiths' work and European imports—represents a case that was brought to the ritual specialist (<em>nganga</em>) for diagnosis and intervention. The action of driving iron objects into the nkisi was intended to arouse it, enabling it to see the intentions of the defendant's enemy.
November 23, 2025 at 10:57 AM
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Pipe https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.199
Pipe
November 22, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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Divination Implement https://clevelandart.org/art/1969.550
Divination Implement
November 22, 2025 at 1:24 PM
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Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.201
Biteki is the generic name for Yaka figures used as containers for magical ingredients. After being charged by a ritual specialist, they become minkisi, or power objects, and gain the power to either cure or harm. This example, with various leadership accoutrements, likely belongs to the category called phuungu. Placed inside a house, the statuette would have protected against witches and other evil.
November 22, 2025 at 10:43 AM
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Helmet Mask https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.66
Deliberately distorted and exaggerated facial features reflect the awesome powers of a great chief. The quadrupeds on the mask’s head suggest the close association between the leopard and the king. In the Cameroon grasslands, masks are typically related to a regulatory society that guards ancestral mores; society members wear the masks and dance in the secrecy of the night.
November 21, 2025 at 1:41 PM
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Snuff Spoon/Comb https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.233
Often, snuff spoons made from the rib of an ox or cow were subtly carved to suggest a female body. Decorated with incised designs blackened with cattle fat and ash, many are true hybrid objects, combining a spoon with a long-tined comb or hairpin. Such spoons were typically worn as ornaments in the hair or even the beard, thus signaling the social standing of their wearer. [Constantine Petridis Cleveland Museum of Art, (4/16/11-2/26/12); "The Art of Daily Life: Portable Objects from Southeast Africa"]
November 21, 2025 at 10:56 AM
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Knife https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.743
This beautifully-wrought knife served as a symbol of political authority among the Ngala. Quite literally it signified the power of life and death for its form was derived from that of an executioner's knife.
November 20, 2025 at 7:53 PM
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Hair Ornament https://clevelandart.org/art/1915.501
Hair Ornament
November 20, 2025 at 3:42 PM
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Female Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/1975.153
Female Figure
November 20, 2025 at 10:44 AM
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Female Figurine https://clevelandart.org/art/2010.449
This female figurine may be a fragment of a spoon or spatula, but this claim cannot be confirmed. Although the iconography of the human image is not uncommon in the art of the Yombe and related Kongo-speaking peoples, it does not reveal the object's function or purpose. The position of the arms has been interpreted as that of a bound prisoner while the head, tilted horizontally or at an angle, represents a broken neck or even a severed head, thus identifying the prisoner as a sacrificial victim. Yet, despite the large quantity of Yombe- and Kongo-attributed works in collections, as well as the vast body of literature on the subject, their culture, history, and art, many questions remain unanswered and our knowledge continues to be fragmented and superficial.
November 19, 2025 at 5:08 PM
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Half-Figure https://clevelandart.org/art/1974.212
The substances contained in its cloth-covered cranial cavity indicate that this half-figure belongs to the broad category of charms or "power objects" that the Luba call mankishi. It was used by a ritual expert and functioned in a variety of rituals dealing with healing, protection, divination, or jurisdiction. Often such power figures were carved by the ritual experts rather than by professional artists.
November 19, 2025 at 3:23 PM
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Side-Blown Trumpet https://clevelandart.org/art/1998.93
Side-Blown Trumpet
November 19, 2025 at 8:12 AM
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Patten-type Shoe https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.566.2
Patten-type Shoe
November 18, 2025 at 7:07 PM