Large Ambete reliquary basket from Gabon

Dimensions: 46 x 36 cm.

Ambete or Mbete reliquary and basket from the Congo-Gabon border. These Bwetes were the focus of sacrifices and prayers to bring good luck to the clan. They were brought out for initiation ceremonies and for funerals of important elders. Sometimes the figure in the basket had a hollowed out space in the back - sometimes even with a door - as a storage place for amulets and other magical objects.

This is a beautiful example: it is a female figure sitting in the basket so that we only see her upper body. The face is the typical Ambete diamond shape with stylized facial features and almost completely covered in kaolin. Her hair hangs down in two long fiber braids and her hands rest on the edge of the basket. The body is woven into the basket using fibers that are further reinforced with clay. There are decorative fiber bindings at the shoulders and also at the wrists.