UgandAshis 58 Congolese dancing stick

UgandAshis 58 Congolese dancing stick

September 19, 2009

The local mosque has a muezzin calling for the evening prayer. It is almost Eid and many of the people around Kansanga are Muslim. Because of Ramadan and the riots last week night life in Kansanga and Kabalagala has been very quiet lately. The one thing that interrupts the silence are Premiership Soccer matches, then pubs are full and people are cheering.

As I dangle in the yellow hammock I can see three lizards working their way through a cloud of mosquitoes in a stalking yet distinguished style. If only there were more lizards and fewer mosquitoes. Our green yellow black eyed friends are working hard but the odds seem insurmountable.
The black kites were circling the house in pairs today. Wondering what they are messaging? And I recall the title of this story; ‘Congolese dancing stick’. It is a wooden carving from Beni, eastern Congo about 80 years old. I am to trace the history of the artifact but holding it in my hand gives a feeling that it is a powerful symbolic tool. The face is Cubist (but from a pre Cubist era), the hairs are made of beads from Germany, the end of which have Cowry shells (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowry). The body of the lady is made out of blue and white beads and her legs are covered in a leather dress.

One can imagine this magnificent carving being the middle of elaborate dance ceremonies. Congolese love to dance. Perhaps it has a role in fertility rites? If only this lady could sing her song. What she has given me is an appetite to study her history and more general the history of wooden carvings in African. In fact she is the ‘core’ and for now ‘only’ piece of my collection. Given the fact that the Congolese market is around the corner I am bound to start buying more of these lovely pieces. A great thank you goes to my compadre Ecke who is a German bead expert with a collection of several 100.000 beads. As I always joke he can tell you were a bead comes from by smell only.

Given my passion for birds I am going to shop around until I find the right bird mask for the right price. Another thing that I am looking in to is much more practical: seats for my house. There are beautiful carvings waiting to be part of my house. Then as a last area of interest I am looking at artifacts related to medicine. For example I saw a beautiful wooden sculpture of a man representing the small pox. It are questions I would love to ask my students in the course culture and health at Mountains of the Moon.

Enjoy the photo and let me know what you think. Artifacts are still available but are getting harder to come by. It is a good time to start collecting therefore. Always great to learn and embrace art.

Namaskar,

Ashis Brahma