Lot 207 Dα

Robert Lehuard, author of "Notes d'un voyage au Moyen-Congo 1924-1933", lived for twelve years in Brazzaville and collected three figures of this type amongst the southern Kota. One of the others is published in Chaffin, A. and F., "L'Art Kota. Les figures de reliquaire", Meudon, 1979, p.249, fig.145.

Louis Perrois, in "Arts du Gabon: Les Arts Plastiques du Bassin de l'Ogooué", Arnouville, 1979, p.172-3, explains that we can pinpoint the precise origin of this style of Kota as the family of sculptors producing them has been located in the village of Otala, to the north of Akiéni on the Lekoni River. The Otala clan (from which the name of the village derives) is related to the Obamba of Séré. The most notable artist from the village was chief Okwéré, an important figure in the "Ndjobi" initiation cult. Perrois states that Okwéré, at the time of writing a very old man, came from a family of chiefs and artists. He was the grandson of the renowned artist, Aligni, who died circa 1920 at a very advanced age.