Panel

The Nkanu peoples of the Democratic Republic of the Congo carve rectangular wall panels from a light wood. All of the panels photographed and/or collected in the 20th century evince a uniform style. They depict human figures or animals in high relief and painted. The background surfaces of the panels are entirely covered with a variety of geometric decorations including circles, lozenges, triangles, zigzag lines and leaf patterns. The snake is represented by a linked diamond or triangle pattern, a design also associated with the ancestors. Iconographic images of people, animals, and geometric patterns emphasize respect for authority, cooperation, and other virtues taught to initiates during their period of seclusion.

This panel features a gaboon viper, a highly poisonous, deadly snake. However, it does not madly attack but waits for prey--a patient predator, not a crazed killer. The panels may also include events from the initiation as well as images with sexual connotations. At the end of initiation, the panels are put on public display in three sided roofed shelters built between the village and the initiation camp.

Wood rectangular panel with high relief carving of a downward descending snake and painted overall with geometric patterns of triangles and Maltese crosses in red, yellow, slate grey and black with white dots, and white outline.

Ambassador Kenneth and Bonnie Brown, Washington, D.C., purchased at a gallery in Kinshasa, D.R.C., September 1966 to 2012

Artful Animals, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., July 1, 2009-July 25, 2010

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