Kaseya Tambwe Makumbi and Pende
Rooftop Figure (Kishikishi)
Pende, 1949-1978
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Wood, pigment, 45 1/2 x 13 3/4 x 9 1/16 in. (115.5 x 35 x 23 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Robert Elkin, Mitchellville, Maryland
Object Number
1998.371
When Kaseya Tambwe Makumbi first sculpted a mother-and-child figure for the rooftop of a Pende chief’s ritual house, his choice of subject revolutionized the art form. Previous rooftop figures had been much less naturalistic and had never so explicitly depicted women as mothers. Although the artist was inspired by Catholic images of the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus, the chiefs he worked for saw a reflection of the traditional nurturing power of Pende leaders. Said one such chief, Kingange, in 1960: “I am their mother. That’s why it [his rooftop figure] represents a mother and child: I gave birth to [the community]."
The Baitmore Museum of Art by gift, 1998; Robert Elkin by purchase, 9/21/1979; Sitta Sillah, an African trader from Western Africa (see donor's documentation worksheet in object file).
African Reinstallation
A Perfect Power: Motherhood and African Art
African Gallery Rotations 2021
African Gallery Rotations 2022
African Gallery Rotations 2023
African Wing Rotations 2024
African Wing Rotations 2025
Frederick John Lamp, "See the Music Hear the Dance: Rethinking African Art at the Baltimore Museum of Art." New York: Prestel, 2003, p.191, ill.
Cornet, Joseph, A SURVEY OF ZAIRIAN ART: THE BRONSON COLLECTION, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, North Carolina, 1978: Fig 72 (Figure by same artist/workshop).
de Sousberghe, L., L'ART PENDE, Imprimerie des Editions, Belgium, 1958.
de Sousberghe, L. "Cases cheffales sculptees des Ba-Pende." Bulletin de la Societe Royale Belge D'Anthropologie et de Prehistoire. Tome LXV, 1954.
Nooter, Mary H. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals. New York: Museum for African Art, 1993.
Strother, Z.S. "Gabama a Gingungu and the Secret History of Twentieth-Century Art." African Arts, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 18-31+92-93.
Strother, Z. S. , INVENTING MASKS: AGENCY AND HISTORY IN THE ART OF THE PENDE, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1998:134.
Strother, Z.S. "Architecture against the State: The Virtues of Impermanence in the Kibulu of the Eastern Pende Chief's in Central Africa". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Sept. 2004), pp. 272-295.
Strother, Z.S. "A Terrifying Mimesis: Problems of Portraiture and Representation in African Sculpture (Congo-Kinshasa)" RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 65/66 (2014/2015), pp.128-147.
de Sousberghe, L., L'ART PENDE, Imprimerie des Editions, Belgium, 1958.
de Sousberghe, L. "Cases cheffales sculptees des Ba-Pende." Bulletin de la Societe Royale Belge D'Anthropologie et de Prehistoire. Tome LXV, 1954.
Nooter, Mary H. Secrecy: African Art that Conceals and Reveals. New York: Museum for African Art, 1993.
Strother, Z.S. "Gabama a Gingungu and the Secret History of Twentieth-Century Art." African Arts, Vol. 32, No. 1, pp. 18-31+92-93.
Strother, Z. S. , INVENTING MASKS: AGENCY AND HISTORY IN THE ART OF THE PENDE, University of Chicago, Chicago, 1998:134.
Strother, Z.S. "Architecture against the State: The Virtues of Impermanence in the Kibulu of the Eastern Pende Chief's in Central Africa". Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 63, No. 3 (Sept. 2004), pp. 272-295.
Strother, Z.S. "A Terrifying Mimesis: Problems of Portraiture and Representation in African Sculpture (Congo-Kinshasa)" RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 65/66 (2014/2015), pp.128-147.
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