Yombe Bone Fetish Figure

Glass eyes catch the light, set in a face of quiet intensity.

This fetish figure is Yombe, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo or Angola, Central Africa. It is wood, glass and bone. Among the Yombe and other Kongo peoples, power figures are generally understood to hold medicinal substances that give them their force, placed by a ritual specialist. The figure stands upright on a square base, arms held at the sides. The face is broad, with parted lips and glass inset eyes. An encrusted, resinous mass covers the belly and crown of the head, and the dark wood is worn smooth elsewhere. It is 2.5 inches wide and 8 high.

Small in size, serious in presence.