Antique Kuba Prestige Cap – Laket Mishiing – DR Congo

Raffia vinifera fibers Cm. 8,0 high (3.15″); diameter cm. 16,0 (6.30″).

Kuba, also called Bakuba, a cluster of about 16 Bantu-speaking groups in southeastern Congo (Kinshasa), living between the Kasai and Sankuru rivers east of their confluence.

They grow raffia and oil palms, raise corn as a cash crop, and hunt and fish. They have kept aloof from modern life, and few have emigrated or engage in European-style occupations. The groups are divided into lineages related through matrilineal descent; the lineages are segments of numerous dispersed clans. The Kuba are united in a kingdom, ruled by the central Bushongo group, which emerged about 1600.

Nature spirits, the spirits of dead kings, the spirits of anchestors dominate Kuba religion.

m23