Photographer: | Rights management: Ethnologisches Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Attribution - NonCommercial - ShareAlike 4.0 International
Very skilfully carved beaker drum. The leather membrane is held taut with iron nails. The handle is a hand with the outstretched fingers pointing downwards, instead of the forearm extended into a double-braided beard. Above it a face. Representative instrument of the Kuba. A strip of fur is nailed underneath the membrane, to which the membrane was sewn. The body is double-curved and has a carved base. The complex ornamentation is striking: a handle was carved out of the material of the body in the shape of an arm, which runs out into a hand in the lower part of the instrument and ends directly in a human head in relief in the upper part. In this area there are decorative nails driven directly into the wood. In the upper half of the instrument, notched carving ornaments can be seen that reproduce textile patterns. Achieving visual confusion by mixing forms and patterns belonging to different areas is the basic principle of Cuban courtly art. The numerous chiefs and dignitaries competed with each other by presenting objects such as this drum at ceremonial gatherings to impress their followers with their astonishing designs. / L.-C.K., P.I.
