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Pipe
unidentified Congolese
Congolese
The Lele, or Bashilele, live south of the confluence of theKasai and Sankuru Rivers, just west of the Kuba kingdom. To the south and west live the Wongo. There has been a free interchange of cultural characteristics with the Bushoong in the Kuba heartland, and it isften quite difficult to distinguish between the Lele and Bushoong styles. Both groups use, and represent in their sculpture, the same elaborate hairstyles, with the hairline shaved to a triangle above the ear. Both groups use a similar repertoire of patterns to decorate masks, figures, bowls, cups, and pipes like this extraordinary example. The Lele often decorate utilitarian objects with human faces, in which the features are more frequently reduced to geometric stylizations than among the Bushoong. Here, the mouth is a simple "D", the nose is severely conical, and the eyes are keeled lozenges with concave, almond-shaped orbits. The cheeks are broad and flat and the chin is quite round. The hairstyle sweeps elegantly back to form a pair of curving ram's horns. The stem of the pipe is carved of wood, and includes the ibol weevil emblem, indicating that the object was made for the royal family. The flaring end is decorated with carved antelope horns. The original bone mouthpiece is missing. -- Professor Christopher Roy, School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa
Southern Savannah Africa Congo (Zaire)
Lele (Kuba) Bashilele
Height: 32 5/8 inches Width: 1 1/8 inches
Wood
The Stanley Collection
University of Iowa. Stanley Museum of Art
x1986_593
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wood (plant material)
183425165
Utilitarian
Status Governance
Prestige