Pierre Dartevelle, Brussels
Baron Frédéric Rolin, Bercuit, Grez-Doiceau and New York, by 1977
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on July 15, 1983

F. Rolin & Co., New York, Luba Hemba, April 20 - May 26, 1979
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures, September 21, 2011 - January 29, 2012

François Neyt and Louis de Strycker, Approche des arts Hemba, Villiers-le-Bel, 1975, p. 27, pl. 24
François Neyt, La grande statuaire Hemba du Zaïre, Louvain-La-Neuve, 1977, p. 82, ref. I, no. 11
Marie-Eliane d'Udekem and Marguerite Klobe, Luba Hemba, New York, 1979, pp. 26-27, cat. no. 32
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989, Washington, D.C., 1989, p. 457, fig. 1176
Alisa LaGamma, 'Exhibition Preview: Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures', African Arts, Vol. 45, No. 1, Spring, 2012, p. 61, fig. 20
Alisa LaGamma, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures, New York, 2011, p. 237, fig. 205
Alisa LaGamma, Helden - Ein neuer Blick auf die Kunst Afrikas, Zurich, 2012, p. 237, fig. 205

This profound and resolute statue of the ancestor Kalala Lea stands sentinel, his gaze serene and omniscient. Published in the most important monographs on Hemba statuary,¹ Kalala Lea is perhaps the most monumental and certainly one of the finest sculptures in this highly distinguished corpus.² At the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 2011, the statue stood as the centerpiece of a display of Hemba ancestor figures in the landmark exhibition Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures. In the ac-companying exhibition catalogue, Alisa LaGamma described the sculpture as possessing “quiet power, impressive for its considerable scale.”³

In the plains of the eastern Congo, the Hemba people live in the land which extends to the north and south of the Luika River, bounded to the west by the Lualaba, the greatest head-stream of the Congo River. Their villages were “named for titular heads, well-remembered ancestors, or particular lineages”, and were “autonomous entities [within] which individuals identified themselves primarily in relation to their extended families and clans.”⁴ Among the Hemba, the family relationship transcended death in an eternal bond. Ancestors continued to exist in a realm distinct from that of the living, but accessible nevertheless, and their spirits watched over the lives of living. The sculptures, known as lusingiti (sing. singiti), which the Hemba made to honor these ancestral bonds, are among the greatest forms of African sculpture. Only within the last forty years, however, primarily through the work of François Neyt and Louis de Strycker, has Hemba sculpture been identified as an original style distinct from that of the neighboring Luba people, with whose iconic sculpture it shares many qualities, not least a deeply meditative appearance. However, while Luba sculpture represents the beauty of the female form, Hemba statuary almost invariably celebrates the power of the male founders of great lineages, with each singiti a posthumous commemorative portrait of the sovereign of a particular Hemba chiefdom. François Neyt calls these sculptures “irrefutable genealogical markers”⁵, but it is rare for the name of the venerated ancestor to remain known. When this monumental and elegiac sculpture was collected its name was recorded as Kalala Lea, “a celebrated ancestral leader of the Kitunga clan from a village north of Mbulula.”⁶

In his monograph La grande statuaire Hemba du Zaïre, Neyt provides a morphological analysis of Hemba sculpture and distinguishes eleven “stylistic centers.” He attributes this statue to the first group in his classification – the Niembo style of the southern Hemba country – which has been described as “the most accomplished and classical” of all Hemba styles.⁷ Like all lusingiti, this sculpture was not conceived as a portrait in a literal sense. LaGamma notes that although these sculptures were intended to represent “specific former leaders in a relatively naturalistic idiom, the representations themselves do not literally reproduce those individuals’ specific physiog-nomies.”⁸ In💧stead the ancestor was represented through an idealized rendition of the qualities which the Hemba valued in their leaders, witꦍh the ancestor’s “likeness” revealed by his deeds.

Although the Hemba artist would follow certain accepted canons of representation, each sculpture is highly individualized, with the head, and particularly the face, the source of distinction, rather than the posture or body. The imperious, orb-like head of Kalala Lea is a magnificent illustration of the care which Hemba artists devoted to the head as the site of intellect; Louis de Strycker has also suggested that the large heads of Hemba statues serve to emphasize the importance of the skull of the ancestor,⁹ which would have been conserved ꦏin a sℱpecial enclosure.

In this statue, the head is of extraordinary volume, its fullness accentuated by the broad, high forehead, the coiffure swept back. The limit of the facial plane is defined by the arched brows, below which the rounded ocular cavities delicately indicate the line of the cheekbones and underline the quiet yet intense gaze of the eyes, half closed under languid eyelids. The limpid gaze conveys an air of deep contemplation which we can associate with the Hemba concept of ubatizha, the visual acquisition of knowledge. The Hemba privileged the gaze above all other senses and helꦫd that through long and unhurried scrutiny one could acquire the most profound knowledge of a person, object, or event. The slight bowing of the head, created by the parallel lines of the forehead and the jaw, furthers the impression of a state of tranquil contemplation and recalls certain representations of bodhisattvas which, like the honored Hemba ancestor, help and guide those in the phenomenal world.

The acute angle formed by the 🍸crisp line of the jaw is counterbal♈anced beautifully by the sweep of the coiffure, the two planes intersecting at the robust column of the neck. The imperious quality of the head is heightened by the signs of Kalala Lea’s high social status: a fine diadem of two bands, an elaborate backswept coiffure, which is arranged in two horizontal and vertical braids, and his finely incised beard.

In addition to remarking on the sculptural quality of the head, Neyt states the body of this statue places it amongst “the finest Niembo works.”¹⁰ The torso is amphora-like, the narrow trunk swelling into an ample stomach which suggests plenitude. The precisely delineated surfaces of the powerful arms and legs unfold rhythmically and contribute to the statue’s feeling of vigor and steadfast resolve. The stylized hands rest on either side of the stomach at the level of the umbilicus, which is the symbol of hereditary succession. Recourse to Kalala Lea’s intercession is evident in the rich and varied patina, which attests to the offerings made to this statue during the invocation of the ancestor’s intercession in the land of the living, during which “the celebrant, surrounded by his family, begins a long dialogue with the ancestor. He recalls the ancestor’s great deeds, invokes his goodwill and his attachment to the family, and reminds him how close he is to them, and that they do not forget it.”¹¹

On careful inspection of the modelling of the eyes and of the aquiline nose, with its arrow-like tip, we can see that Kalala Lea bears a resemblance to the figure by the Buli Master in the Malcolm Collection.¹² ✱This impression is increased by the similar bowing of the head in both statues. The sculptor created this impression by p🤪lacing the apex of the line of the forehead well ahead of that of the chin. This characteristic exists, in less dramatic form, in certain other Hemba-Niembo statues, including one of the masterpieces of the corpus, the ex Béla Hein statue in the Etnografisch Museum, Antwerp (inv. no. A.E.0864).

In the statue of Kalala Lea we perceive a defining quality of the best Hemba sculpture. For all its formal “classicism” and rarefied noblesse, great Hemba sculpture 🍒does not merely express the somewhat impersonal and gelid perfection of an ancient marble. Looking at Kalala Lea one feels the presence and vigilance of the ancestor whose spirit is enshrined in this sublime sculpture.

1. Neyt and de Strycker, Approche des arts Hemba, 1975, p. 29, described as “an exceptional work”; and Neyt, La grande statuaire Hemba du Zaïre, 1977, p. 82
2. Neyt and de Strycker, ibid.
3. LaGamma, Heroic Africans, 2012, p. 234
4. Reese Blakely, ‘Material Culture in a Hemba Village’, Master’s Thesis, Indiana University, Bloomington, 1978, p. xi, cited by LaGamma, ibid., p. 225
5. Neyt, ibid., p. 479
6. LaGamma, ibid., 2012, p. 234
7. de Grunne, ed., Mains des maîtres/Masterhands, 2001, p. 182
8. LaGamma, ibid., p. 266
9. de Strycker, ‘La Statuaire Hemba du culte des ancêtres. Eléments de diférenciation des Hemba par rapport aux Luba et Luba-Hemba’, Thesis, Brussels,1974-1975, p. 123
10. Neyt and de Strycker, ibid.
11. Neyt, ibid., p. 488
12. The Buli figure is said to represent an ancestor named Kalala Luhembwe, another rare instance of th🍒is information being recorded upon collection.