Kuba Tukula Box
Tribe: Kuba
Country: Democratic Republic of Congo
Material: Wood
Size: 7.75" (19.75 cm) Long
Condition: Good
The Kuba used boxes such as these for storing tukula--a reddish powder made from the bark of a tree. It was used for body and hair coloring and used to ornament the face and chest during dances, as well as to anoint bodies for burial. Boxes as these were also used for rituals objects. Some are in the shape of a mask.
Tukula is a red powder that is finely ground from parts of the Camwood tree. To the Kuba it is an immensely valuable substance, the Western equivalent of gold. Tukula is both auspicious and prophylactic. Its earthy or purplish red color is used abundantly in decoration, rubbed onto items such as cups, containers, figures, weapons, oracles etc. to honor and beautify them Tukula is also used to bless people like new born babies, pregnant women, new mothers, warriors, the diseased and the deceased etc. It s usually applied after having been mixed in a special wooden or clay dish with oil extracted from palm-kernels. Tukula will be preserved in special decorated wooden boxes like the one listed here, these boxes can take many shapes. When mixed with a binder, compressed, sun dried and smoked, tukula can be formed into solid objects, such as massive crowns worn by the queen Mother and young women during their first pregnancy, or into the famous bongotol that are unique to the Kuba. Bongotol consist of pure Tukula sculpted and dried into a shape, they are usually rectangular and decorated with geometric symbols. A few will be fashioned into miniature objects, such as gourds, spoons, pillows, houses, boats, etc.... Rarely do they represent humans. Bongotol were used as ritual currency (not unlike gold bars), as grave goods and a prestige gifts. They were given to important people at weddings and funerals. The majority of them bear geometric patterns indicationg the family that had them crafted.
In view of the number of different containers used to store tukula, their ubiquous ausage as well as the existence of bongotol currency and tukula crowns, one cannot overstate the importance of tukula in Kuba society and culture.
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