Old Salampasu Circumcision Panel – DR Congo

Polychromic panel in bamboo and pigments. Cm. 86,0 x cm. 59,0.

Like most ethnic groups in DR Congo, the Salampasu are a Bantu people, a term deriving from linguistic classification terms. The Bantu peoples began migrating east, west and south out of Central Africa sometime around the time of Christ, or a little before.

Their name means “Hunter of Locusts.” They are better known to their neighbours as fierce warriors.

Once, the education of the young people, very severe, was entirely oriented towards a pedagogy of courage and punctuated by successive initiations. The young men went through circumcision camps where they were sometimes locked up for two years. These camps were surrounded by polychrome bamboo panels with geometric patterns. They are all cut by hand from bamboo, and colored with natural pigments such as charcoal, lime, caolin, etc …

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