Tumba (Kongo)

Artist Robert Verly gathered a large number of statues in the north of Angola near the Zaire border and, in the May 1955 issue of Zaire, he classified the objects by type and proposed an explanation for their use.^[4] In July 1978, the Institut des Musees Nationaux du Zaire at the Center for International Commerce of Zaire in Kinshasa mounted an exhibition of 72 bitumba called "Sculptures Stones from Lower Zaire."^[5]

Bitumba sculptures are unique in their variety of styles. Robert Farris Thompson has identified about twenty workshops that explain stylistic individuality. The wide dispersal of the works, however, has made it impossible to localize their centers of production.

Bitumba are express a variety of themes. The most widely found - about twenty percent of statues belong to this type - is a figure who raises his hands in front of his face in a gesture often interpreted as praying. The second most prevalent theme is that of mother and child. The art of Lower Zaire, and especially the art of Mayombe, is known for privileging maternity subjects. The third theme is that of the "thinker," who holds on hand on the hip and the other pressed to check in an attitude of meditation.^[3]