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

Maternity Phemba - Kongo / Yombe - DRC (Zaire)

Representations of "maternity" from the Mayombe and the coastal region of the Kongo country are among the most captivating 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 a female fertility cult established by a midwife.

The various works often depict women breastfeeding.

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

Marc Léo Félix, in his book Kongo (page 85), tells us that these statuettes would be the effigy 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 plant-based coating acting as a mediator between the transient states of birth and death.