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Slit gong

20th–mid 20th century
Object PlaceDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Medium/TechniqueWood, beads, fiber, coin
DimensionsOverall: 43.2 cm (17 in.)
Credit LineArthur Tracy Cabot Fund and Hy and Shirley Zaret Acquisition Fund for African Art
Accession number2015.2238
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsDecorative arts
Description

Since the seventeenth century, spiritual specialists, or diviners, in the Kongo kingdom—stretching across the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola—have announced their presence with small handheld gongs like this one. Men and women are called to become diviners in dreams, and subsequently undergo training with an established practitioner before accepting clients of their own. A diviner combines spiritual practice with family counseling by helping clients to understand how their behavior may have caused an illness or misfortune.

This twentieth-century gong was made for a spiritual expert in the Yaka region, which has shared history with the Kongo kingdom. Diviners carry gongs such as this one both to play as a musical instrument and to use as mixing bowls for medication; the undecorated body ensures that it is also a serviceable stool. The finely carved head is the primary ornament on this multifunctional instrument. The head’s nearly closed eyes suggest the gift of inner sight given to the specialist who used the gong, while its three-lobed hairstyle alludes to the authority of nineteenth-century chiefs, who wore their hair in this fashion.

ProvenanceBy 1982, purchased in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of the Congo) by Richard and Susan Lee, Kishasa, Zaire and Ridgefield, WA; 2015, sold by Richard and Susan Lee to the MFA. (Accession Date: June 25, 2015)
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