(AFRICA) African Kuba chief or obas staff

Sale 2171 - Lot 104

Price Realized: $ 1,680

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000

(AFRICA.) African Kuba chief, or "oba's" staff. Dark wood, 18- 1/2 inches overall height; 5 inch section at the top with two seated slaves, their hands bound behind their necks; geometrically carved portion at the bottom forming a "handle." Strung from the top are several pieces of "magical" bark or plant matter, etc; lovely smooth patina. Africa, circa late 19th century

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rare. two slaves at the top demonstrate the chief''s power The Kuba Kingdom, also known as Bakuba or Bushongo (1625-1900) was a pre-colonial Central African state bordered by the Sankuru, Lulua, and Kasai rivers in the southeast of what is today the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire). The Kuba kingdom had an elaborate system of servants, menials, and slaves. Slavery in the rigid form that existed in Europe and throughout the New World was not practiced in Africa or in the Islamic Orient. "Slavery," as it is often referred to, in African cultures was generally more like indentured servitude: "slaves" were not made to be chattel of other men, nor enslaved for life. African "slaves" were paid wages and were able to accumulate property. They often bought their own freedom and could then achieve social promotion just as freedman in ancient Rome. Some even rose to the status of kings.