This small ivory carving of a mother and her twins was carved by an artist of the Kongo Kingdom. The quality of the carving is very high. The mother is sitting cross-legged on a low pedestal, her feet wrapped around her buttocks and her arms wrapped around each other. She is evidently of high status, being dressed in several anklets, bracelets, a necklace and numerous scarifications that would have denoted her status and geographical origin to all who saw this piece. She is also wearing a loincloth, only visible in rear view. Her face is simply yet effectively carved, with oval eyes, a broad nose, protuberant eats and an open mouth, exposing two teeth. She wears a highly ornate skullcap decorated in hatched diamond-shaped lozenges. Her necklace is made from a series of suspended elongated beads, and her thorax, shoulders and back are covered with linked sectorial diamond-shaped scarifications. Her children are pressed between each breast and arm, with the twin in her right hand lying in front of the other. Their central hands reach up symmetrically and almost touch between her breasts. The pedestal upon which she sits is decorated with a hatched herringbone design.

The Kongo (or Bakongo) people live in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola and the Congo. By the end of the 15th century the Kongo were living in a series of loosely-connected yet autonomous kingdoms, to include Kongo, Ngoyo, Vungu and Kakongo, followed by the increasingly powerful Bakongo kingdom, Loango, at the start of the 16th century. This coincided with the arrival of the first Portuguese explorers, with whom they had a reasonably peaceful relationship for some time. The kingdom absorbed European traditions and religion without bloodshed, and, more importantly, with much of their indigenous culture intact. While matters deteriorated subsequently, partly due to wars with other tribal groups (notably the Yaka), the Kongo tribes have survived relatively well as cultural entities and have seen a resurgence since their independence in 1960.

Indigenous Kongo society was based around the kingship model, with extensive arrays of civil servants and court officials not unlike that of the Nigerian Kingdom of Benin. Owing to the large size of the area in which they live, this group is often unable to communicate and has to rely upon French/Portuguese or creoles based upon them. Their religious beliefs have a far wider circulation, and are based around a reverence for the dead who are believed to be able to assist in the determination of future destinies. They are also believed to inhabit minkisi (singular nkisi), or charms, that can be appealed to for assistance in times of duress or uncertainty. The most notable pieces of Kongo sculpture are the Nkisi Nkondi figures – often referred to as nail fetishes – which carry a packet of magical materials known as a bilongo; the figures are insulted and “hurt” with explosions and nails so that they will carry out the wishes of their tormentor. Various other categories also exist, such as the ntadi limestone grave markers and maternity figures, of which this is an excellent example.

Maternity figures are not designed to be prayers incarnate, as they are with Asante Akua’ba dolls or similar; they are instead designed to portray what the Kongo people believe to be the ideal characteristics of womanhood – submission, deference, obedience and devotion – rather than just portray the beauty of maternity; in some cases the baby is actually absent. The presence of twins is unusual, but not unforeseen due to the high rate of twinning in the area covered the Bantu expansion (most notably focused upon the Yoruba area). In light of the fact that fecundity is a revered characteristic in Africa as much as anywhere else, this is likely to have been a cause of celebration. The fact that the piece is made from the most precious material available to Kongo artists makes it probable that the piece was made for, or commissioned/owned by a high-ranking member of Kongo society, in line with the evidently high status of the woman portrayed.

This is an interesting and charming piece of African art.