Reliquary Basket
Country: Gabon
Material: Wood, Fiber, Reed, Brass.
Size: 20"
The Kota also revere the relics of their ancestors, keeping bones and other relics of important ancestors in baskets or bundles which they call Bwete. The reliquary figures that served as protectors of these bundles, are attached to them and are called mbulu-ngulu. When needed, in times of great danger, the community would bring these mbulu-ngulu and bwete together with the belief that their combined power would offer a greater resistance to whatever they were facing.
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