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MBULU NGULU
Ancestral Guardian
BAKOTA - GABON (About 27 inches high) (KOTA STYLE)
These figures were used to guard religious baskets (MBUMBA) of tribes in Gabon (2).
The baskets contained some skull remains and other objects of specifically magical value. In this category of masks, large figures represented founding fathers with smaller ones commemorating less important individuals.
Each sculpture had an individual name known to all villagers.
The figures acknowledge the on-going influence of ancestral spirits in daily life and thus celebrate a belief in an after-life.
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