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Cultural Context

Shamanism

Description

Wood stick with two openwork spherical structures, one fitted on each end. The stick passes to the other side of the sphere through the centre and is lashed in place with sphere warp elements. From these, the sphere structure is one continuous length of root(?) following the circumference, evenly-spaced and lashed to warps by rows of wood strip binding. Decorated by removing dark brown bark for light brown coloured bands. Small seeds placed in each sphere. Ends finished by wrapping wefts around warps.

Narrative

The collector, Nellie Taylor, served as a nursing missionary (1900-1920), first with the Ovimbundu at Bihe, then with the Chokwe at luma Kasai. She belonged to a group who sponsored several missions across Central Africa from 1881-1931.

History Of Use

A lusangu or musambu (plural: sangu or misambu) rattle is played by a diviner (Tahi) to ward off evil and summon an intercession from ancestors. The diviner acts as an intermediary between the physical and the spiritual worlds and discerns facts about the past and present, and what people can and should do. The diviners also discover the causes of misfortunes, such as death, impotence and accidents. Other types of sangu, usually made of hard-shelled fruit from the Munzenze tree and pierced with small holes, are fastened on wrists by drummers to accompany rhythm or worn on ankles by masked dancers during ceremonies and musical performances.