Mangbetu Tribe (Bruno Claessens Gallerie 2011)

The making of these horns, including carving and
piercing of the mouthpiece, was entrusted to the smiths,
who had the required metal tools. Carving and shaping a
mouthpiece could take several days. Sometimes the point
of the tusk was cut off, leaving a small hole that could be
covered by the player’s thumb to produce more tones. At
the time Lang was in Mangbetu country, the points of
many of these horns were decorated with carved human
heads, and Lang noted that ‘conventionalized’ heads were
the most typical motif. Lang, like some older Mangbetu
today, claimed that this motif was introduced to
represent Queen Nenzima. The horn could be extended
by attaching a wooden tube to to its large end. These
tubes could be covered with skins of animals such as
leopard, lion or okapi. Older ivory horns are sometimes
partly covered with animal skin.
1. Private Collection. Sold at
Christie’s, Paris, 11 June
2007. (Lot 128, lenght: 97 cm)
2. Ex Collection Marc & Denise
Ginzberg, New York, USA.
Published in Ginzberg
(Marc), African Forms, Milano,
2000:140 (lenght: 127 cm)
1.
2.
Ex Private Collection, Belgium
The materials used to make horns have changed in response to the changing economy
and ecology of northeastern Congo. Instruments of wood, animal horn, and gourd
have long been played throughout the region for hunting, signaling, and music. Far
more labor and, consequently, patronage were required to catch an elephant and carve a
horn out of a solid ivory tusk than to make an instrument of hollow antelope of buffalo
horn. When international trade made ivory more valuable, it became associated with
foreigners and chiefs’ relationships to them. Ivory horns, as a symbol of chieftaincy,
became part of the Mangbetu court orchestra. Court dancers often held these ivory
horns aloft as royal emblems; their symbolic value may have taken precedence over
their musical function on these occasions. When tusks later became relatively scarce
and hence more costly, chiefs had fewer ivory horns made, retaining older instruments
for a longer time and replacing them with instruments of antelope horn.
32 Mangbetu Material Culture
33