superb maternity - Bakongo - DRC Congo (No reserve price)

Maternity Pfhemba - Kongo / Yombe - DRC Zaire
The representations of "maternity" from Mayombe and the coastal region of the Kongo country are among the most alluring in African art due to their universal theme, their naturalism, and their formal perfection.

These statuettes were called Pfemba or Phemba.

They were used within the framework of a female fertility cult established by a midwife.

The various works often depict women nursing.

According to Lehuard (page 121 of "Maternity in Black Africa" G. Massa éditions Sépia) babies whose legs are stiff are dead, while the living would have legs bent at the knees.
The statuette would stage a chief's wife presenting to her husband their first living child or stillborn child, or one who died shortly after birth.

Marc Léo Félix, in his book Kongo (page 85), informs us that these statuettes would be a likeness of the clan founder or of a reigning woman.
These objects being the property of the chief.

Other sources mention that these statues were used, rubbed with a red vegetal coating that acts as a mediator between the transitional states of birth and death.