Songye Community Power Figure, named "Lupika", by the sculptor Yakyomba, Democratic Republic of the Congo

Contains African Buffalo (syncerus caffer) hide, Southern Savanna Monitor (varanus albigularis) skin and Domestic Goat (capra hircus) horn.

Photographed in situ by Alan P. Merriam (1923-1980) in the village Lupupa Ngye in 1959-60
Morton Dimondstein, Los Angeles, acquired in ca. 1972
Joshua Dimondstein, Los Angeles, by descent from the above
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 2001

Plattsburgh State Art Museum, Burke Gallery, State University of New York, Plattsburgh, African Mirror, February 8 - April 7, 2003

Alan P. Merriam, "Change in Religion and the Arts in a Zairian Village," African Arts, VII, no. 4, Summer 1974, p. 48
Alan P. Merriam, An African World: The Basongye village of Lupupa Ngye, Bloomington and London, 1974, pp. 124-125 (discussed in text without illustration)
Dimondstein Tribal Arts (advertisement), Tribal Arts - Le Monde de L'Art Tribal, vol. VI, no. 1, Winter/Spring 1999/2000, p. 33
Paul Rossi, African Mirror, Plattsburgh, 2003, inside cover
Viviane Baeke, Anne-Marie Bouttiaux and Hughes Dubois (eds.), Le Sensible et la Force, Tervuren, 2004, p. 27, fig. 4
Laurie McLaughlin, "Lost and Found", Space Orange County, April 2007, p. 50

Very good and unusually complete condition overall for an object of this type; some insect damage on bottom of base, hairline crack on proper left shoulder, minor nicks and scratches, wear and tear; all attachments the same as in the 1959 in situ photograph; both fiber bands around waist broken on proper right side and repaired; necklaces very fragile with insect damage and metal part corroded; horn on top broken vertically and horizontally and repaired; fine aged encrusted patina with areas of abrasion on the arms and cheeks; requires expert shipping and handling.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The offered Songye figure is one of the very few works of African art to have survived together with their contextual information. "Lupika" was first documented by the anthropologist and musicologist Alan P. Merriam (1923-1980), Professor and former Chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University, who visited Lupupa Ngye, a village to the north-east of Tshofa in Songye territory, in 1959-1960 and again in 1973. "Lupika's" history is detailed in Merriam's monograph An African World: The Basongye village of Lupupa Ngye (Merriam 1974a); a brief discussion of "Lupika" is also contained in Merriam's essay "Change in Religion and the Arts in a Zairian Village" (Merriam 1974b).

Referring to his first visit to Lupupa Ngye, Merriam (1974b: 48) reports: "In 1959-60, and apparently stretching back into the past, what little regular group ceremonial was practiced in the village centered upon a large carved wooden figure named Lupika. Lupika was an nkishi, or village fertility figure, associated with the first appearance of the new moon, and his presence assured the general well-being of the village, the fertility of its women and land, and protection against catastrophe, malignant forces in general, and particularly, witches."

And at another place Merriam (1974a: 124-125) explains further: "the people [of Lupupa Ngye] commissioned the carver Yakyomba of the village Mona to make the figure named Lupika which was still in use in 1960. [...] Lupika's public appearances [were] jealously guarded from the outsider and it was only on a very few occasions that I was permitted to be present. The heavy figure is carried by means of two poles lashed to his base; those who carry and at the same time dance with him may be anyone who wishes to do so. Special songs are sung on the occasion, accompanied by slit wooden gong, drum, double iron gong, and rattle, and general dancing occurs. Lupika is accompanied by special attendants, bilumbu (s. kilumbu), who are chosen by dream. [...] Lupika is 'fed,' primarily with chicken livers, and chicken blood is dripped over his head by him who provides housing to the figure; the occasions for such offerings are signaled in dreams."

Merriam (1974b: 48) discusses also the circumstances of "Lupikas" departure from the village Lupupa Ngye: "It is symbolic, as well as simultaneously resultant of a long prior struggle, that Lupika was sold to a Zairian trader at least two or three years ago [written in 1974, this means 1971 or 1972], and quite possibly before that. The ever-present split between young and old was clearly involved in the sale of the figure, for while the old believed in Lupika and in the traditional system he represented, the young had begun to lose their belief at least as early as 1959-60; today [i.e. during Merriam's visit in 1973, following their conversion to Christianity] they say that Lupika was the Devil [...]."

Two closely related figures, with round shoulders, full lips, and an identical treatment of the hands, are today in the collection of the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale, Tervuren. Both were collected by Belgian Colonial Administrators around 1940 (accession nos. "RG 43948" and "RG 39581", published in Baeke 2004: 28-29 and 64-65, cats. 8 and 9) and presumably created in the 1920s-1930s. One of them (accession no. "RG 39581") is known to have been found in the proximity of Tshofa. Given their close stylistic similarities as well as the date and in one case also the location of their collecting in situ, it seems plausible to assume that both figures are also works by Yakyomba, the same artist who created "Lupika".