Headrest - Wood - Luba neck support

Luba headrests. French collection of African art. The Luba are renowned for their sculpture, in particular their headrests and stools, consisting of a figure in the form of a caryatid. The figures decorating this headrest, to preserve the owner's elaborate coiffure, refer to Luba royalty and tutelary spirits. But headrests were also used to support the heads of the deceased, and sometimes, according to Albert Maesen, buried in their place. Satin brown patina.

The Luba (Baluba in Luba-Katanga, tsiluba language) are a Central African people. Their cradle is Katanga, more precisely the region of the Lubu River, from which the name derives (Baluba, meaning “the Lubas”). They emerged from a secession of the Songhai people, under the leadership of Ilunga Kalala, who caused the death of the venerable king Kongolo, worshipped since under the form of a python.

In the 16th century they established a state, organized as a decentralized chiefdom, spanning from the Kasaï River to Lake Tanganyika. The chiefdoms cover a small territory with no real border, comprising at most three villages. Source: “Luba” F. Neyt