Chokwe Female Figue from Angola.
Carved in a monoxyl piece of wood, this character is kneeling on his circular base, holding a stick in his hands. The fine detail of the face of this Chokwe statue is remarkable. Large eye sockets with half-closed eyes and a small nose which stands out between the cheekbones.
The skull extends into a long cap which has a check pattern. The patina is smooth and relatively clear.
Peacefully settled in Eastern Angola until the 16th century, the Chokwe were then subjected to the Lunda Empire from which they inherited a new hierarchical system and the sacredness of power. Nevertheless, the Chokwe never fully embraced these new social and political ideas. Three centuries later, the Chokwe eventually took over the capital of the Lunda, weakened by internal conflicts which contributed to the dismantling of the kingdom. The Chokwe did not have centralized power but large expertise.
We find the Chockwe people in Angola, south parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and few in Northern of Zambia.