| According to the Luba peoples, only a woman's body is strong enough to hold ancestral wisdom and spiritual blessing. Behind the overt authority of every Luba male ruler is the enduring grace of his predecessors, whose deeds and powers are conveyed and channeled through the women that surround him, uphold him and remember him for posterity.
The stool depicts a kneeling woman whose body serves as a protective spirit vessel. It serves as an instrument of connection and communication between the world of the living and that of the spirits. The female figure embodies literal and metaphorical references to the glories of Luba royal experience, which rests on ancestral legacies. |