Woven Basketry Shield Gube
Western Mongo: Ntomba / Nkundu / Konda, D.R. Congo
Wood, rattan, pigment
Early 20th century

The Mongo occupy most of the Congo River basin forests, bordered by the Congo River to the north and west, the Kasai River to the south, and the Lualaba River river to the east. Narrow basketry shields found in the western part of the area were customarily made with two layers of rattan strips woven together at the rim, which consisted of two parallel stiffening rods. In the past, these shields were called ‘bow shields’ by the so-called Ba Ngala, “the people of the water.” The width of these shields does not vary greatly, although their length ranges from four to five feet. Some shields are plain, but many have designs woven begween the two stiffening rods, differing only in the number of woven diamond motifs they contain (Baur & Elsen, Guba: Wicker Shields from the Congo Basin. 2002; Benitez-Johannot & Barbier, Shields: Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, 2000).

50 in :: 127 cm

InventoryID #13-2268

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