Chokwe!: Art and Initiation Among Chokwe and Related Peoples

The Chokwe, the most artistically prolific ethnic group in Angola, command a rich visual world, as this exhibition catalogue illustrates using artworks from selected private and museum collections in the United States, Europe, Canada and South America. One hundred and fifty pieces of work of the Chokwe people are displayed as well as works from neighbouring groups resident in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia - the Lwena, Ovimbundu, Holo or Lunda. It includes masks, chief's and ancestral figures, thrones, scepters, divination tools and ceramic figures and explores male and female initiation and the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next through symbolic art forms. This book brings forth concepts of history, morals, religion and politics in a dramatic and educational context.