Ofika figure. Mbole. Upper Zaïre. Wood,
pigments.
© Africa-Museum, Tervuren
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Like the bukota of the Metoko and
the bwami of the Lega, the Mbole lilwa society has an educational and
socio-political purpose. The ofika statue represents a person who was hanged
for breaking the laws of lilwa and upsetting public order. This type of
figure is also associated with the practice of collecting body fluids
by suspending the body from a pole from high-ranking lilwa members.
The fluids are then used to transmit, by way of a ritual anointing, the
vital force from the deceased to his successor.
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