OBAMBA RELIQUARY FIGURE Gabon, Upper Ogooué region, Kota people. End of XIXth century. Thick wooden core plated with leaves and decorated copper and brass strips. H. 62 cm. The concave side is divided into four copper quarters decorated with horizontal strips. On the two brass strips crossing in the middle of the face are two different round eyes, one in the other in copper, it is an old repair made with a military button. The nose is triangular. No mouth. This reliquary is topped with a crescent of classical form. The lateral caps are curved and the pendants which are hung there are oblique and of form cylindrical shape, the neck is decorated. The wood of the base is very patinated. On the reverse side, a diamond pattern is carved in relief. Some wear and tear due to age and use. The devotion to the relics of the dead is one of the characteristics of the religions of many peoples of Gabon. Ancestors are made even more present when their bones are preciously preserved, being the object of specific rites. The use of the bone box was widespread in Congo and Gabon, especially among the so-called Kota peoples. The latter are the only ones in this region to use a metal decoration covering almost the entire wooden frame. These kinds of tombs portable tombs were exhibited on many occasions, during the initiation of the young people the families of the clan families would gather and bring their reliquaries. Provenance: Family history tells us that this mask was brought directly from Africa by a great, great uncle. Mr. Pierre Cardi. The owner tells us: "The story I have always heard: It was given by a village chief to this uncle, who was a postmaster in Gabon in the 1890s. The latter is said to have saved a child from drowning and therefore received this gift as a "reward". Mom inherited it in the 1960s."