African Art Vocab

Adobe: clay and straw that is sun-baked

Aka: an elephant mask of the Bamileke people in Cameroon

Bilongo: medicinal materials added to the stomach of a nkisi n’kondi figure

Bundu: masks used by the Sande Society of the Mende peoples to initiate girls into puberty

Byeri: a reliquary guardian figure of the Fang peoples in Cameroon

Heraldic composition: a central larger figure is flanked on either side by lesser figures

Ikenga: a shrine figure symbolizing traditional male attributes of the Igbo people of Nigeria

Kuosi society: Bamileke nobility and court officials

Lost-Wax Casting: cire perdue (French); a sculpture is carved out of wax with a clay interior; the sculpture is then put into a clay casing and heated, so that the wax will drip out; space is left between the clay casing and clay interior; molten metal is then poured into the space; the case is cracked so that the now-metal sculpture can be released

Lukasa: a memory board used by the Luba people of the Congo

Mblo: a commemorative portrait of the Baule peoples in Côte d’Ivoire

Mooya: Kongo term for belly; believed to be the focal point for the soul

Ndop: a Kuba commemorative portrait of a king in an ideal state from the Congo

Nganga: ritual specialist and artist of nkisi n’kondi figure

Nkisi n’kondi: a Kongo power figure

Nsek-byeri: container or box that Fang ancestral remains were carried in; byeri protects this box

Pwo: a female mask worn by men of the Chokwe people from the Congo to honor mothers

Talisman: intended to ward off evil with supernatural properties, or bring good luck

Torons: wooden beams projecting from walls of adobe buildings

Veranda post: vertical sculpture originally intended to be among structural posts of a palace porch