Large and very old reliquary statue in wood, pigment, kaolin and cowries (eyes), typical of the Ambété (or M'bété) ethnic group of Gabon

Height: 83 cm

The Ambete ethnic group

Probably detached from the Kota group, according to most sources, the Ambete are settled on the border between Gabon and the Republic of Congo.

They have produced several types of sculpture: heads, busts, but are best known for their reliquary statues with an invariable style - a long cylindrical bust, short legs and undersized arms always bent in an L at the elbow, a flattened face, a pointed chin, an open mouth revealing the teeth and a fluted hairstyle - which, freed from any figurative constraint, gives off a great impression of power.

Very attached to the cult of relics, like the Fang or their Kota neighbors, they nevertheless distinguish themselves from them in that the Ambete reliquary is not made up of a basket or a box surmounted by a reliquary figure, but of the statue itself which always has a dorsal cavity in which the bones of the ancestors were inserted.

Very attached to the cult of relics, like the Fang or their Kota neighbors, they nevertheless distinguish themselves from them in that the Ambete reliquary is not made up of a basket or a box surmounted by a reliquary figure, but rather of the statue itself which always has a dorsal cavity in which the bones of the ancestors were inserted.

The M'bete statue

Completely in accordance with the canons described above of the Ambété statuary, this very old statue with eroded and dehydrated wood is extremely light

Variants of the name Ambete

According to the sources, we observe several names: M'bete, Bamba, Bambete, Mbede, Obamba, Umbete...