Shipping

African Origins ship dozens of international orders every week to every corner of the globe. We generally use Australia Post, a reliable, economic and fast service which also features online tracking. For multiple orders weighing over five kilograms we ship or via International Air Courier which also features online tracking. Please feel free to contact us directly with your country and zip code if you have any questions or special requirements regarding shipping or wish to obtain a quote for shipping to your area. We are happy to calculate combined postage quotes for multiple items.

Returns

African Origins sells hand-made tribal objects which have been used, in some cases, for many, many years. We ask that you carefully study the photographs relating to each object prior to committing to purchase. In the event that you are unhappy with your purchase for any reason, we accept returns within thirty days of purchase date.

About African Origins

 African Origins has been trading online since 2007. We are constantly on the look-out for interesting objects to add to our collection. Our tribal collection is sourced from tribal dealers, auction houses private collections the world over and also collected in the field. Where possible, we will specify the provenance of important individual tribal objects.

Feedback

 The continued success of African Origins depends on positive feedback. If you are happy with your purchase, please leave positive feedback and we will do the same for you. If you are not happy, please contact us first before leaving negative feedback and we will do all within our power to rectify the problem.

Please note that unless specified otherwise, no item from the African Origins shop comes together with a display stand. This includes objects that have a display stand visible in the images that accompany the listing.

The Mbete claiming a Kota origin live in the middle part of the Republic of Congo near the frontier of Gabon and in eastern Gabon. In view of the shifting location of the peoples living in this region, it is impossible to retrace the precise history of the Mbete culture. Certain ethnological and sociological aspects of their life are relatively well known, and we know that the secret societies were numerous and powerful. The Mbete do not have any centralized political organization; they practice ancestor worshiulpture: heads, busts and full figures. The latter are thought to have a connection with the ancestor’s cult – they were either used as reliquaries or placed alongside ancestor bones in a basket. The massive reliquary figures, statues and masks of the Mbete are cubist in structure, the stepped hair-dress having clearly-marked gradations, and the face frequently being painted white.

Heads and busts were probably positioned on poles and placed in front of the chief’s house. They may have had an apotropaic and emblematic purpose. Statues are provided with a dorsal, rectangular cavity, or the body itself may be in the shape of a reliquary chest. The relics could be set inside the statue. In this case the upper body of the statue is particularly elongated and the back hollowed out with a box-shaped cavity accessible through a small door held in place with a thread. It is thought that this would hold the long bones of hunters who had played an important role in tribal life. The arms are often fixed to the body and the hands and feet barely discernible.

Generally the head alone is sculpted in the round, the arms and lower extremities only roughly carved out. The faces of the Mbete statues show a prominent forehead overhanging a hollow receding face with a rectangular mouth and broadly carved features, so that the original tree-trunk form is still visible. The shoulders are thrown forward, the arms slightly bent. Frequently, the hairdo, composed of horizontal loops, is parted by a central crest.