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‎Ubangi. Art and cultures from the African Heartland,‎

‎, Fonds Mercator, 2007, Hardcover with dustjacket, 29.7 x 24.5 cm., 288pp., 350 colour illustrations. brandnew /fine condition !! ISBN 9789061537403.‎

‎Ubangi, in central Africa, is a region where roads and influences meet. This vast country, which extends along the banks of the River Ubangi, is roughly bounded by Lake Chad in the north, by the Congo river in the south, by the Cameroonian border in the west and by the Sudanese border in the east. The sculpture of Ubangi remained for a long time, and quite unjustly, unrecognized. This work describes and compares the astonishing artistic lineages which flourish in this region. Ubangi is a markedly transnational region, located between the rainforest in the south and the savannah in the north, among peoples speaking different languages, among the politically decentralized societies of west Africa and the ancient kingdoms of east Africa. At the heart of these differences, true points of convergence exist, such as the initiation of adolescents at the onset of puberty or the cults of healing and fertility. At these rituals superb objets d?? art were and still are traditionally used. Throughout the ages the region has been a cauldron of cultures under the influences of migration, assimilation and appropriation, but in spite of notable differences, its art nonetheless displays powerful visual coherence. The art is characterised particularly by sculptures in wood of human figures between 10 cm and two metres tall. Musical instruments, amulets and other ordinary objects reveal similarities of form with these figures. Masks and initiation items, but also photographs from the colonial era, illustrate the way in which certain rituals were handed down. This is the first time that a monograph has been devoted to this both varied and magnificent artistic heritage. New book.‎