Cikungu, the supreme royal-ancestor mask

Cikungu (Chikunga) is the most powerful and sacred of the Chokwe mahamba, the ancestral mask-spirits. It is the largest Chokwe mask, built of barkcloth stretched over a wicker frame, coated with resin and painted, and it personifies the collective power of the ancestors of the ruling lineage. Only the reigning chief (mwanangana, 'master of the land') and his heirs may wear it; at all other times it is concealed in a shelter in the bush. The mask appears at the investiture of a new chief, at sacrifices to the ancestors, and in rituals meant to ward off dangers facing the chief or his subjects. Because the Chokwe address the remote creator only through such ancestral spirits, and because the chief is regarded as the earthly representative of Kalunga/Nzambi, Cikungu stands at the apex of Chokwe sacred art.

Domains

• kingship and sovereignty
• ancestors and the dead

Powers

• to embody the collective power of the chiefly ancestors
• to sanction and consecrate the installation of a chief

Epithets

• makishi wa mwananganaBoris Wastiau, Chokwe, Visions of Africa series (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2006). (secondary)

Relations

• subordinate to: Nzambi, the remote supreme creatorAs a mahamba, Cikungu is one of the ancestral spirits through whom the Chokwe approach the otherwise unapproachable creator; the chief who wears it is held to be the earthly representative of Kalunga/Nzambi.Boris Wastiau, Chokwe, Visions of Africa series (Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2006). (secondary)

Sources

• Cikungu is the most sacred Chokwe mahamba mask, personifying the collective power of the chiefly ancestors and worn only by the chief and his heirs at investitures and ancestral sacrifices.: Manuel Jordán, ed., Chokwe! Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples (Munich: Prestel, 1998). (secondary); Marie-Louise Bastin, La sculpture Tshokwe (Meudon: Alain et Françoise Chaffin, 1982). (secondary)