guardian figure - Metal, Wood - Mahongue - Gabon

Guardian Figure of the Mahongue from Gabon Priv. collection, Austria. In earlier times, the deceased were laid out in the woods and at a later point buried in the earth. Subsequently, the skulls of important founding fathers of a clan and of chieftains were exhumed and placed inside large baskets, along with other keepsakes, in a type of ‘second burial ceremony’. These baskets were sealed and kept in their own huts, the ‘holy shrines’. If the village was evacuated, the baskets containing the bones of their ancestors went with them, and a new shrine was erected for them in the next village Insured worldwide shipping with tracking.