Reliquary Guardian Figure with Brass Eyes, Bakota

Kota · 20th century

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Details

Details
Country	Gabon More about Country Gabon, Central Africa. The Kota-speaking groups live mainly in the east of the country, in the Ogooué-Ivindo and Haut-Ogooué provinces, and across the border in the Republic of the Congo.
Tribe / Culture	Kota More about Tribe / Culture The Bakota (Kota) peoples of eastern Gabon and the neighbouring Republic of the Congo created some of the most striking sculpture of Central Africa. Their reliquary figures, known as mbulu ngulu, stood watch over bark baskets and bundles that held the revered remains of lineage ancestors.
Age / Period	20th century

Symbolism & Iconography

Carved in wood and sheathed in hammered copper and brass, sheet and wire, each guardian transforms a human face into a radiant geometry. Metal was precious and charged with meaning; its brilliance was believed to ward off harm and honour the dead.

These forms later captivated the artists of early twentieth-century Paris, and they remain icons of African art today.

Aesthetic & Formal Analysis

Tall and austere, this guardian has a near-rectangular face wrapped in thread-fine copper wire. A brass strip punched with diamond patterns runs down the centre to two concentric brass eyes, and the same dotted ornament reappears around the shaft.